Class 




Book__^E_3_ 



V3 34wi 



3 8- 

THE 



SABBATH MANUAL, 



} 



NOS. I, II, III, AND IV. 



BY REV. JUSTIN EDWARDS^D. D. 



PUBLISHED BY THE ^ 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

160 NASSAU. STREET, NEW YORK. 



CONTENTS. 



No. I. 

PAGE 

The nature of man — institutions established in Paradise, ... 7 

Testimony of Scripture— ends for which the Sabbath was appointed, 10 

The nature and design of the decalogue, •••••• 13 

Reason for keeping the Sabbath, • • 15 

Effect of the stillness of the Sabbath, 17 

Influence of the Sabbath on moral government, • • • 19 
God our Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer, , . , . .20 

The rights of God— the rights of men— Sabbath-breaking dishonest, 23 

Nature and object of human government — sailors* rights, ... 28 

The way to support a family, 31 

Eights of men to animals and the elements, .32 

The Sabbath based on a natural law — ^Dr. Farre's testimony, ♦ . 34 

The Sabbath necessary to man, , 35 

Physicians, clergymen, and senators destroyed, . . • • • 38 

Testimony of Wilberforce — Romilly and Castlereagh, . , . . 39 

The financier and merchant — Dr. SewalPs testimony, ... 42 

Testimony of Dr. Harrison, Dr. Alden, New Haven Medical Association, 44 

Dr. Warren's testimony — physicians on the Erie canal, ... 47 

Experiments in England, the United States, and France, ... 50 

The flouring establishment— the making of salt — the fisheries, • . 51 

Laws of nature with regard to animals, 56 

Experiments with horses, cattle, and sheep, ...••• 56 

Families on journeys — the Sabbath made for the soul, ... 59 

Judge Hale's testimony — Dr. Wilson's testimony, , • . , 62 

A mechanic in Massachusetts, . . . , • • • • 63 

Efiect of Sabbath-breaking on the health, 64 

Auburn state-prison — Delaware and Hudson canal, .... 66 

One hundred thousand convicts — riding out for pleasure, ... 69 

A distinguished merchant in New York, 72 

The language of Sabbath-breaking — various experiments, ... 74 

The four travellers — passengers on board the Lexington, , , • 76 

The mechanic and master of a vessel — an old man in Boston, , , 78 

The man who worked on the Sabbath, 80 

The finger of God — the duty, privilege, and blessedness of man, . • 84 



TV CONTENTS. 

No. II. 

THE LORD*S DAY. 

FAOC. 

The Sabbath not made for the Jews only, ... . < .87 
The original law of creation, ... . .89 

No period of duration holy in itself, • • » . 92 

The Sabbath not chronological identity, ... .91 

Elustrations of keeping the fourth commandment, . ,92 

The great principle as to time — the new creation, ... 93 

Efiects of the knowledge of Jehovah — prophecy applied to Christ, • 97 
The practice of the redeemed and of the Redeemer, • . 300 

The joy of his disciples — their meetings on the Lord's day, • , 103 

Interview with Thomas — agreement of prophecy and facts, , 106 

The day of Pentecost — conduct of apostles and first Christians, . 108 

The sanction of God — testimony of Ignatius and others, . 112 

Testimony of Clement and Tertullian — ^directions and conduct of Paul, 114 
The sanction of Jesus Christ — testimony of Pliny — of Justin Martyr, 118 
Testimony of Ambrose and others — Mosheim's testimony, , . 122 

Character and testimony of Eusebius — sanction of the Holy Ghost, . 324 
Perpetuity and effects of the new creation — warning of the Saviour, 129 
Moral and ceremonial laws — two kinds of Sabbaths, , 333 

One kind only abolished — testimony of Dr. Chalmers, , , . 134 



No. III. 

THE SABBATH A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 

Two great fundamental institutions established at the Creation, . . 141 

Both made for man, and adapted to his nature, . . . 141 

Not good for man to be alone 142 

Tiie " help-meet " which God made for him — why he made but one, 142 

The object of making her, and giving her to the man — its effect on him, 143 

Some not satisfied with God's arrangement, .... 143 

Reasons why for a time God suffered them to depart from it, . 144 

WicUedness not sanctioned by regulations to lessen its efiects, , 144 

Gunervment. — Children the property of God, ... • 14fl 

The ohject of committing them to parents — official character of parents, 14Q 

The primary lesson of moral government, ..... 147 

Ail children of common sense can learn it, .... , 14? 

Clod's way of teaching it, the best way, • • . . . 14d 



CONTENTS. V 

PAGE. 

The dictate of the heart of God, 151 

Family government a divinely appointed means of grace, , 

Its eflept on the conscience, 

An introduction to, and preparation for the government of God, 
Instruction. — Sources and mode of verbal instruction, , , 
The voice of nature — ^the teaching of Revelation, . . 

The influence of facts from the vt^orks and word of God, . 
The influences of thp Holy Ghost, ..... 

Given, by God, to those that ask him, . . , . , 

The failure of a man's salvation his own fault, . , . 



, 152 

153 
. 154 

154 
. 155 

156 
► 159 

159 

, 160 

The right, the duty, and the object of teaching every child to read, • 161 
^ - - - - ^g^ 

161 
. 161 



The right and the duty of reading the Bible daily. 
Parental Example. — ^The right, duty, benefits, and necessity of, 
The right and duty of family prayer — its effects on children, 

Influence of faith in God on character and prospects, . . . 163 

The Sabbath a Family Institution. — Not good for the family to be alone, 165 

God made an " help-meet "for it — a gift to the human race, . , 165 

Diligence in business, if continued seven days in a week, destructive, 166 

Dissipation, amusement, and sloth, on the Sabbath, destructive, , 167 

Importance of honesty — form of the sabbatical command, . . , 168 

Parental and divine government coalesce, , . , , , , 170 

Parents punished by Sabbath-breaking children, ..... 171 

Sabbath Influence. — Material and spiritual laws, .... 172 

Influence on children — on the fatherless and the widow, . , , 172 

On Young' Men. — When a young man leaves his father's house, . 179 

The most hazardous period of probation, 180 

The description of a young man— his making himself a fool, . . 180 

His voluntarily going to hell, when he might go to heaven, , . 183 

Influence of Marriage and the Sabbath on youth, ... 184 

The final results, 185 



No. IT. 

Objects of preceding Numbers, , . 107 

Directions of God with regard to the proper mode of keeping the Sabbath, 191 

His care for servants and beasts of burden — their nature, . . . 192 

The penalty of death, temporary — law maxim, " JVoscitur a sociis,^^ 194 

Difference between laws and penalties— testimony of Jehovah, . , J96 

Eflects of keeping the Sabbath — momentous question answered, . J99 

Effects of breaking the Sabbath, 202 

The doctrine of Christ with regard to the Sabbath, .... 204 

Reasons why the Jews opposed him — Jewish traditions, • • • 208 



VI CONTENTS, 

PAOB. 

The manner in which Christ treated them, 217 

The teachmgs of the apostle Paul, 2 Cor. 3 : 2, etc., . . • .219 

Difference between the Jewish dispensation and the moral law, • 225 

Increased obligations, nnder the Gospel, to keep the Sabbath, • • 227 

Law maxim, " Q,ui facit per alium, facit per se,** .... 228 

Owners of mills — Sabbath labor unprofitable, . , . . • 228 

Sabbath-breaking manufactories — no necessity for disobeying God, • 230 

Sabbath -breaking detrimental to the poor, 236 

Sudden and unexpected providences, ...••. 238 

Farmers in haying-time and harvest, . 238 

A young man in a thunder-storm, 241 

The man who defied the lightning—" It happened so," . . . 243 

Merchants and bankers — the state of the markets, , . . . 246 

The sayings of a merchant — cases of failures, ..... 251 

The course of lawyers — merchants on the arrival of vessels, , . 253 

Travelling in order to get home — the mails, 257 

Cases of sickness and death — the right course for travellers, . • 263 

TravelHng with a family — two young ladies, 265 

The man who had been absent a long time, 268 

The sailing of steamships and packets — ** the Sabbath castaway," . 269 

Breaking the Sabbath for health — apprentices and clerks, . . • 273 

The men employed on ferry-boats — keepers of livery-stables, . • 276 

Butchers, bakers, and printers — family arrangements, . . , 282 

Whaling — secular reading— physicians, . . . . . • 284 

Ministerial exchanges — conscience takes the side of the Sabbath, , 290 
" I have lost my child "— " It is bad, very bad," . . . .297 

Connection between Sabbath-keeping and piety, .... 301 

Active duties of the Sabbath — the study of the Bible, . , , 302 

The reading of good books — attendance on public worship, , , 303 

Acquisition and communication of biblical knowledge, . , , 307 

The business of Saturday, , 308 

Case of a distinguished minister of the Gospel, ..... 309 

The way to do most — ^let the custom be changed, . ... 311 

Sabbath-schools, etc. — " Not my will, but thine be done," , • 312 

Public worship essentia/— conclusion, , 314 



THE 



SABBATH MANUAL. 

IVo. I. 



ENDS FOR WHICH THE SABBATH WAS APPOINTED, 
AND REASONS WHY IT SHOULD BE OBSERVED. 

Man is mortal and immortal. His body will 
soon die and mingle with the dust. His soul will 
live in a state of conscious, intelligent, moral, and 
accountable existence, forever. Knowledge is the 
food by which it grows in piety, wisdom, usefulness, 
and bliss. Of all the knowledge of which it is capa- 
ble, the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ is the 
most important. This is life — eternal life. 

One grand object of Jehovah, in all his dealings 
with men, is to manifest himself, and give to them 
correct views of his character and will. This is 
designed to lead them to exercise right feelings, 
and pursue a right course of conduct towards him, 
themselves, and one another. By so doing, they 



8 THE SABBATH. 

will glorify their Maker, benefit themselves, and do 
the greatest good to their fellow men. 

For this, God stretched out the heavens, and laid 
the foundations of the earth ; created man, and 
made him lord of this lower world. For this, he 
established for him various institutions and laws. 
Among them was the institution of the Sabbath ; 
or a day of weekly rest from secular business and 
cares, of special devotion to the public worship of 
God, and the promotion of the spiritual and eternal 
interests of men. 

The first great institution established in paradise 
for the human race, was that of inarriage. This 
lays the foundation for families, and for social rela- 
tions among men. The second great institution, 
established also in paradise for the race, was that 
of the Sahhath. This was designed to regulate fam- 
ilies ; to point out the period for labor and the period 
for rest, for the public worship of God, and of spe- 
cial devotion to spiritual and eternal concerns. So 
important was this arrangement to the glory of God 
and to the welfare of men, that with reference to it 
God regulated his own conduct in the creation of the 
world. He wrought six days — himself. He then 
came out in the face of creation, and rested one day. 
God thus gave to this arrangement of six days for 
labor, and one for rest, the sanction of his high and 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 9 

holy example. This was the proportion which 
v/ould, in all ages, be suited to the nature of men, 
adapted to their capacities, and essential to the sup- 
ply ^1 their wants. With reference to it, time 
itself was to be divided, not into days, or months, or 
years, merely, or into any periods measured by the 
revolutions of the earth or the heavenly bodies, but 
into weeks — periods of seven days ; six for labor, 
and one for rest and special devotion to spiritual 
things. This division of time, measured by the 
conduct and will of God, and by the capacities and 
wants of men, was, among those who should know 
and do his will, to be as permanent and as universal 
as though it were measured by the revolutions of 
the earth or the heavenly bodies. It was to be, in 
all ages and all countries, a sign of the covenant 
between God and his people ; an emblem and a 
foretaste of the rest which remaineth for them, and 
a special season of preparation for its eternal joys. 
For this reason, Jehovah not only kept it himself, 
but he sanctified it, or set it apart from other days 
for this special purpose. He also blessed it, and 
with such a fulness of blessings, that they flow out' 
to those who keep it, not only on that day, but 
through all the other days of the week. They are 
blessed in their bodies and souls, in their going out 
and their coming in, and in all their ways. 



10 THE SABBATH. 

In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah and thirteenth 
verse, Jehovah speaks as if the keeping of the Sab- 
hath were obedience, or would promote obedience 
to all his commands, and thus insure his blessing : 
" If thou turn away thy foot from doing thy pleas- 
ure on my holy day, and c^il the Sabbath a delight, 
the holy of the Lord honorable ; and shalt honor 
him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine 
own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : then 
shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will 
cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, 
and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father ; 
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 

In the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah and twen- 
ty-first verse, we have an exhibition of the same 
great principle : " Thus saith the Lord ; Take heed 
to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath 
day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 
Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on 
the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hal- 
low ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your 
fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined 
their ear, but made their neck stiff*, that they might 
not hear, nor receive instruction. . And it shall 
come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, 
saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the 
gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 11 

the Sabbath day, to do no work therein ; then shall 
there enter into the gates of this city kings and 
princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in 
chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the 
men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem : 
and this city shall remain forever. And they shall 
come from the cities of Judah, and from the places 
about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, 
and from the plain, and from the mountains, and 
from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacri- 
fices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing 
sacrifices of praise unto the house of the Lord. But 
if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sab- 
bath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering 
in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day ; 
then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it 
shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall 
not be quenched." 

In the above passages Jehovah speaks as if the 
keeping of the Sabbath were everything ; as if it 
comprehended, or would secure obedience to all his 
commands. This, in an important sense, is the 
case. Such is the nature of man, such the institu- 
tion of the Sabbath, and such the effect which the 
keeping of it will have upon him, that, if he is obe- 
dient to God in this thing, he will be obedient to 
him in other things. A Sabbath-keeping people 



12 THE SABBATH. 

will be an obedient people. The manner in which 
they treat the Sabbath will be a test of their char- 
acter, an index of their morality and religion. God 
did not think it necessary, therefore, to say to his 
people in these passages, that, if they would not 
commit murder, he would bless them ; or, if they 
would not be guilty of theft, he would bless them. 
He knew that if they would rightly keep the Sab- 
bath, they would not commit murder or theft, or 
ordinarily be guilty of any gross outward crimes. 
Men who regularly observe the Sabbath, and habit- 
ually attend public worship, which is a part of the 
proper observance of that day, do not commit such 
crimes. While they keep the Sabbath, God keeps 
them ; not by force or coercion of any kind, but by 
the influence of moral government, through means 
of his appointment. 

The Sahhath is the great and all-pervading means 
of giving efficacy to moral government, and holds a 
relation to general morality similar to that which the 
marriage institution holds to social purity. It was 
designed, and is adapted to lead people steadily to 
Test from worldly business, cares and amusements ; 
to contemplate Jehovah as the Creator, Preserver, 
Redeemer, Benefactor, Owner, Governor, Judge, 
and Disposer of men ; to keep alive, and render 
practically efficacious, the knowledge of the one 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 13 

only living and true God ; to lead all to worship and 
adore him, and thus to experience the benefits of his 
infinitely wise, universal, and benevolent reign. 

Hence the reason which he gave to his ancient 
people why they should keep it^"that ye may 
know that I am Jehovah.'^ Had all men properly 
kept the Sabbath, all would have known Jehovah, 
and worshipped him, from the creation of the world 
to the present time, and idolatry never would have 
been practised on the earth. Hence also, when the 
wants of his ancient people required that they should 
no longer depend upon oral communications merely, 
but should have the unchanging laws by which 
they were to be governed placed upon a permanent 
record — such as, " Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me ; shalt not bow down to graven images ; 
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in 
vain ; shalt honor thy father and thy mother ; shalt 
not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, 
or covet," — he put this among them : " Remember 
the Sabbath day to keep it holy : in it thou shalt not 
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant^ nor thy 
cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates." 
He placed this in the midst of them ; and obedience 
to it was essential, in order to obedience to the other 
commands. If they would not keep the Sabbath, 



14 THE SABBATH. 

they would not obey him in other things. Sabbath- 
breaking would be treason against the government 
of God, and open the way for universal profligacy 
and ruin. 

Hence, as a civil ruler, he would no more suffer 
the Sabbath-breaker to live among that people than 
he would the murderer. The ^penalty was placed 
among the local and temporary regulations of that 
peculiar people; it was riot designed to be perma- 
nent, and was not written by the finger of God on 
the tables of stone ; but the law was written there ; 
because that was designed to be permanent. It ex- 
pressed an obligation which arose from the nature of 
man, and from his relations to his Maker, and which, 
as really as the obligation expressed by the other 
laws, would be binding upon him through all time. 

It is sometimes said that, if the law of the Sab- 
bath is binding upon men now, then we must, as 
the Jews did, put the violators of it to death by the 
hand of the civil magistrate. This does not follow. 
We are not now, as the Jews did, to put the open 
presumptuous violators of the first, or the fifth, or 
the seventh command, to death. Yet are not these 
commands binding upon men ? Is it not wicked 
for men to have another god before Jehovah, to 
bow down to graven images and worship them, or 
to dishonor their parents ? All the commands of 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 15 

the decalogue expressed obligations which were 
binding upon men before they were written upon 
tables of stone, and which will continue to be bind- 
ing till the end of the world. 

The penalty of death attached for a time to the 
violation of the Sabbath, showed how the Lawgiver 
abhorred the crime. Nor was this abhorrence 
without good reason. The Sabbath-breaker vio- 
lated a fundamental law. He proclaimed by ac- 
tions, the most impressive of all language, "No 
God!" and thus produced the effect of practical 
atheism on himself and on others. He does this 
in all ages. And as long as it will be wicked for 
men in a state of probation to have another god be- 
fore Jehovah, to bow down to graven images, to 
take the name of God in vain, to dishonor their 
parents, to commit murder, adultery, or theft, to 
bear false witness, or to covet ; so long will it be 
wicked for them not to rest from worldly business, 
cares, and amusements, one day in seven, for the 
purpose of publicly worshipping Jehovah, and pro- 
moting the spiritual good of themselves and others. 

The reason which God gave on the tables of stone 
for keeping the Sabbath, was not a Jewish reason. 
It was one which applies alike to all men. " For 
in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 
earth, the sea, and all that in them is." But he 



Id THE SABBATH. 

did not make them for Jews merely, or for any par- 
ticular people. He made them for us, and for all 
men. As a memorial of that fact, he set apart the 
Sabbath, kept it, sanctified and blessed it, for the 
benefit of all. All are bound, by keeping it, to ac- 
knowledge this, and to honor him as the Creator, 
Preserver, and Benefactor ; and, as such, the Owner, 
Governor, and Disposer of all things. The Sabbath 
was appointed for that purpose, and, as a conse- 
quence, to impress on the minds of men the great 
truths, that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein ;" 
that " the silver and the gold are his," though ac- 
quired by human industry, and " the cattle upon a 
thousand hills." 

The earth is not eternal ; it did not create itself: 
no creature called it into being. Nor is its exist- 
ence to be ascribed to chance, to idols, or to any 
of the false gods which men have worshipped. In 
the beginning Jehovah created the heavens and the 
earth. And the things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear. They were liter- 
ally created. "He spake, and it was. He com- 
manded, and it stood fast." 

The Sabbath was designed to make all men feel 
this ; and to lead them, by keeping it, publicly to 
acknowledge, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast 



WHY GOD APPOINTED IT. 17 

laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens 
are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but 
thou remainest.'^ And "Thine, O Lord, is the 
greatness, and the power, and the victory, and the 
majesty ; for all that is in the heavens and the earth 
is thine ; thine is the kingdom, O Jehovah, and thou 
art exalted as head above all.'^ 

Such are some of the truths which, by the keep- 
ing of the Sabbath, are every week proclaimed to 
the world, in a manner adapted to the nature of 
man, and suited to make on him a strong and last- 
ing impression. 

When, on the morning of that blessed day, the 
sun rises and shines as brightly as on other days, 
the oxen graze as peacefully, the lambs skip as 
briskly, and the birds sing as sweetly — yet no man 
goes forth to his labor, no shop-door or window 
opens, no wheel rattles on the pavement, or vessel 
leaves the harbor, no stage-coach or canal-boat runs, 
no whistling or rumbling is heard on the railroad, 
or bustle is witnessed in any department of secular 
business, but universal stillness reigns throughout 
creation, except as broken by the voice of prayer 
and praise ascending to its Author — that stillness is 
the voice of God to the moral nature of man ; his still, 
small, but all pervading and efficacious voice, pro- 
claiming his existence, his character, and his will : 

Sab. Manual. 2 



18 THE SABBATH. 

that he is a great God and a great King above all 
gods ; that in his hand are the deep places of the 
earth, and that the strength of the hills is his also ; 
that the sea is his, for he made it, and his hands 
formed the dry land ; that he is a God that judgeth 
in the earth, and is not far from every one of us ; 
that on him we are dependent, and to him are ac- 
countable ; and that he will bring every work into 
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be 
good or evil. And it is a voice which each indivi- 
dual who is enlightened, and not scathed by iniquity 
till he is twice dead, will hear, and in some meas- 
ure feel. 

In proportion as he hearkens to it, and enters into 
its spirit, he will have a deeper and more operative 
conviction of the presence of God, and of the near- 
ness, reality, and importance of eternal things. He 
will feel more solemn, more as if one thing were 
needful ; as if the favor of God were life, and his 
loving-kindness better than life ; and he will be 
more likely to say, ^^O come, let us worship and 
bow down ; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker ; 
for he is our God, and we are the people of his pas- 
ture and the sheep of his hand." 

This was designed to be the effect of the stillness* 
of the Sabbath, and this is the preparation which 
men need when they go to the house of God, and 



WHY GOD APPOmXED IT. 19 

hear his voice speaking through the living ministry 
to the ear, in order to make it like the rain and the 
snow that come down from* heaven and water the 
earth, causing it to bring forth and bud, that it may 
give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So, 
when men rightly keep the Sabbath, will the word 
of the Lord be. It will not return void, but will 
accomplish that which pleases him, and prosper in 
the thing whereunto he sends it. In the prophetic 
language of inspiration, " Men will go out with joy, 
and be led forth with peace ; the mountains and the 
hills will break forth before them into singing, and 
all the trees of the field will clap their hands. In- 
stead of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and 
instead of the brier, the myrtle-tree ; and it will be 
to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign, 
that shall not be cut off." 

Thus the keeping of ike Sabhath makes God known, 
gives efficacy to his moral government, increases the 
number and fidelity of his subjects, and communicates, 
to a greater extent than can otherwise be done, the 
benefits of his holy and perfect reign. 

The keeping of the Sabbath promotes the same 
end in another way, by directing attention to Je- 
hovah, not merely as the Creator, but as the Pre- 
server and Benefactor of men. Not only is it true 
that ^* of him are all things,'' but equally true that 



20 THE SABBATH. 

" ly him are all things." He is not only the Former 
of our bodies and the Father of our spirits, but " in 
him we live and move, and have our being." He 
keeps the breath in our nostrils, the blood flowing in 
our veins, and the spirit of life within us. He not 
only piled up the mountains and scooped out the val- 
leys, made the channel for the river, and the bed 
for the sea, but he maketh the grass to grow upon 
the mountains, and the corn to spring in the valleys. 
His rivers run among the hills. He visiteth the 
earth and watereth it. He maketh it soft with 
showers, and he blesseth the springing of it. The 
earth is full of the riches of Ms goodness. So is 
that great and wide sea, wherein are things creep- 
ing innumerable, and where goeth that leviathan 
which he hath made to play therein. These all 
wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat. 
What he giveth, they, in ways of his appointment, 
gather. And when he withholdeth, they die. He 
openeth his hand and supplieth the wants of every 
living thing. Of him, and through him, and to him 
are all things. 

The Sabbath was designed to make men feel this, 
and lead them to act accordingly ; to treat Jehovah 
as their Maker, Preserver, and Benefactor; and 
render to him the obedience which their relations 
to him require. 



THE RIGHTS OF GOD. 21 

But to men he has ^j^ecm? claims, over and above 
those which result from creation, preservation, and 
the bestowment of all temporal favors. When they 
by rebellion were lost — when there was no eye to 
pity and no arm to save — then his eye pitied and 
his arm brought salvation. He laid help for them 
upon One who is mighty, and who came to take 
away their sins by the sacrifice of himself. Though 
he was rich, for their sakes he became poor, that 
they, through his poverty, might be rich. He was 
wounded for their transgressions, and bruised for 
their iniquities. The chastisement of their peace 
was upon him, and by his stripes they are healed. 
He bare their sins in his own body on the tree ; 
entered the holy place with his blood, and obtained 
eternal redemption for them. Nor did he merely 
die for their sins. He rose again for their justifica- 
tion. And he now lives, and makes intercession 
for them, and offers them all the blessings of his 
salvation, without money and without price. Who- 
soever will may come to him, and them that come 
he will in no wise cast out. Though their sins be 
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though they 
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. From 
all their filthiness and their idols he will cleanse 
them. A new heart will he give them, and a new 
spirit put within them. He will take away the 



22 THE SABBATH. 

heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh. He 
will be their God, and they shall be his people. 

Surely they are not their own. They did not cre- 
ate themselves. They do not preserve themselves. 
They are not the authors of the blessings which 
they enjoy. Above all, they " are bought with a 
price,^' and " redeemed not with corruptible things, 
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of 
Christ,'' who loved them, and gave himself for them, 
that whosoever belie veth on him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life. 

Such are some of the truths which the Sabbath 
inculcates. It commemorates the work of God, as 
Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer. It 
is the day which the Lord has made for this pur- 
pose, and which he blesses to this end. It also 
points to a rising Saviour, a finished redemption, 
deliverance, through grace, from an eternal hell, 
and exaltation to an eternal heaven. And it is a 
powerful means of leading men to live not unto 
themselves, but unto Him who died for them, and 
rose again ; and thus to glorify him in body and 
spirit, which are preeminently his. 

They are his by creation, his by preservation, and 
his by all the blessings which they enjoy. They 
are his by redemption ; and his, through the influ- 
ence of the Sabbath and its attendant means of 



THE RIGHTS OF GOD. 23 

grace, if rightly improved, they will be by adop- 
tion, and heirship to an inheritance incorruptible, 
undefiled, and not to fade away. 

Thus the Sabbath was designed to commemorate 
and enforce the rights of God — those which result 
from creation, preservation, and redemption. 

His right to men, to all which they possess, or 
can obtain, and to all things, is higher and more 
perfect than does or can belong to any other being. 
His rights are original, independent, eternal. His 
are the kingdom, the power, and the glory. His the 
absolute ownership, the rightful possession, and the 
just final disposal of all things. For he hath cre- 
ated all, and for his pleasure they are and were 
created. And his pleasure is always right, always 
perfect, and promotive of the highest good of all 
who obey him. 

One conclusion which results from the above- 
mentioned truths, and to which we invite universal 
attention, is, Wliatever Jehovah does, or suffers to he 
done, he wrongs no one. 

Though his way be in the great deep, his goings 
past finding out, and the reasons of his dealings to 
mortals are not known, yet he has reasons — good 
reasons, the best reasons — reasons which, like him- 
self, are perfect, and which, when published, will 



24 THE SABBATH. 

lead all the good to cry, " Alleluia ! for the Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth.'^ 

When he lets the winds out of his fists, and they 
sweep the ocean, break the pride of navies, and 
sink the treasures of a thousand hearts, he wrongs 
no one. When he suffers a fire to be kindled, and 
insurers and insured see their all go up in smoke, 
he wrongs no one. 

If, with his providential finger, he touch the cur- 
rency or the commerce of a country, and all is in 
confusion, and the wise men, the great, and the 
mighty men who try to adjust it, dash one against 
another like the waves of the sea, and accumulated 
millions vanish, he wrongs no one. Though he 
turn the fruitful field into a wilderness, and the 
mart of nations into a desert, he wrongs no one. 
When he comes and lays his hand on that little 
child who has just opened its eyes on creation, and 
it closes them and passes away, he does not wrong 
even her who gave it birth ; "for the Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken" only Ms own. And 
though he doeth his pleasure in the armies of heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of earth, and with all 
things throughout the universe, he doeth all things 
well. 

This, the Sabbath was appointed to make men 
feel, and lead them to say in view of all that God 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 25 

does, " It is the Lord : let him do as seemeth good 
in his sight. '^ '' Though the fig-tree should not 
blossom, and there be no fruit in the vine, the labor 
of the olive should fail, and the fields yield no meat, 
the flocks be cut off from the fold, and there be no 
herd in the stall, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, and 
joy in the God of my salvation.^' " Though he 
slay me, yet will I trust in him.'^ 

Another conclusion which results from the facts 
above mentioned, is, that men have no rights to any- 
thing hut those which God gives them. Their rights 
are derived and dependent. Without information 
from the Giver, they would never know fully what 
these rights are. This information he has given in 
the Bible ; all of which is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correc- 
tion, and instruction in righteousness, that men who 
receive and obey it may become perfect, and be 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It shows 
them what to believe, wherein they are wrong, and 
how to return to that which is right. It instructs 
them in what is right in feeling and conduct towards 
God, themselves, and their fellow men ; and it sets 
before them the highest motives to do it. It is the 
voice of God to the soul, testifying words by which 
it may be enlightened, sanctified, and saved. 

For this reason every person should own a copy ; 



26 THE SABBATH. 

search it daily as the word of God, with earnest 
supplication for the teaching of his Spirit ; and as 
they know his will, they should do it. They will 
then know the truth, and the truth will make them 
free. God will shine into their minds, and give 
them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the 
face of Jesus Christ. In his light they will see 
light, and will become light in the Lord. They 
will know him, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, 
and will let the light of holiness so shine that others 
will be led to glorify their Father in heaven. 

They will also know their rights, learn the way 
to exercise them to the mutual good of all, and be 
disposed to take that way. And they will know that 
the right to work seven days in a week is not one of 
them. That right God never gave. That right no 
man ever had. That right no man can get. Human 
governments cannot give it. It was never given to 
them. They do not possess it. They cannot obtain 
it, nor can they bestow it upon others. 

Then will all men know, too, that if any one, in 
the government or out of the government, takes 
seven days each week for secular business and gain, 
he does it wholly without right. 

For such purposes the Sabbath was not made or 
given to man. It is not his. And an honest man 
will not knowingly take what is not his. He will be 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 27 

content with that which belongs to him, and will 
conscientiously abstain from taking more. The 
Sabbath, foj* secular business and gain, belongs to 
no man, and no honest man, who knows this, will 
take it. This should be understood by all. 

As the Bible and the knowledge of facts are 
disseminated, and the will of God made known, it 
will be understood through the length and breadth 
of the country, and throughout the world. Honest 
men, who know the truth in regard to the Sabbath, 
will act accordingly. They are doing it to a great 
extent now. The manner in which men treat the 
Sabbath is developing their character, and showing 
whether they are contented with the periods of labor 
which belong to them, or are disposed to take more. 
If they are intelligently disposed to take more, they 
are not, at heart, honest men. 

To six days, for secular business, men have a 
right. God has given it. " Six days shalt thou 
labor, and do all thy work.^' Why must men do 
all their work in six days of the week ? Because 
there are no more days, in which to work. God 
never made but six working days. He never gave 
any more. No man has any more. 

Yet another day is added to every week. To 
that, also, every man has a right, for the purpose 
for which it was made. He has a right to remem- 



28 THE SABBATH. 

her it ; that, at such a time, it will come ; and to 
order all his worldly concerns in such a manner 
as to be prepared for it. When it comes, he has 
a right to keep it holy to the Lord ; not as a day 
of worldly business ; but as a day of rest, and of 
special devotion to the worship of God and to the 
spiritual good of men. This is the right of the 
;poor^ as really as of the rich ; of servants, as well 
as of masters. All have a right to labor six days 
in a week, because God has given it. All have a 
right to rest one day in seven, because God has 
given that. His command is, "Remember the 
Sabbath day, and keep it holy. In it thou shalt not 
do any work ; thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy 
cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. ^^ All 
men have a right, and it is their duty to obey him. 

This right does not come from men. It comes 
from God. Like the right to live, to see the sun, 
and breathe the air, it vests in humanity, and is 
inalienable. No human government gave it, and no 
human government, without deep injustice, can take 
it away. 

Though government is an ordinance of God, and 
magistrates are his ministers, designed to be a terror 
to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well, yet 
it was not instituted to give rights, but to guard 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 29 

them; to protect men in the enjoyment of them, 
and in the proper application of them to the concerns 
of this life. The right to keep the Sabbath lies back 
of human government, and rests on the same foun- 
dation with government itself ; namely, the revealed 
will of God, and the wants of the human family. 

There is not a laborer on the canal, or railroad, 
in the manufactory or workshop, or in any depart- 
ment of worldly business, who has not a right, when 
the Sabbath comes, to keep it holy to the Lord ; to 
worship him, and promote the spiritual good of men. 
This right is understood, asserted and maintained, 
by increasing numbers. 

The crew of a vessel in one of our harbors was 
ordered by the captain to labor on the Sabbath, in 
preparation for a voyage. They refused, assigning 
as a reason their right to rest on the Sabbath while 
in the harbor, and to attend to the appropriate duties 
of that day. The captain dismissed them, and at- 
tempted to procure another crew. He applied to 
numbers who refused. He then met an old sailor, 
and asked him if he would ship. He said, " No V 
"Why not?" said the captain. "Because," said 
the sailor, " /he man who will rob the Almighty of 
his day, I should be afraid, would, if he could, rob 
me of my wages." The captain could not find a 
crew, and on Monday was glad to take the old one. 



30 - THE SABBATH. 

They engaged again, and showed by their conduct 
that the keeping of the Sabbath had fitted them the 
better for the duties of the week. 

A man was applied to, and offered a large salary, 
to superintend the running of the cars on a railroad. 
He consented to take the office on condition that no 
cars should run on the Sabbath. This caused the 
board of directors to discuss the question, whether 
they should confine the running of the cars to the 
six working days. A part were in favor of it ; but 
two, who were very rich, were opposed to it, and 
had sufficient influence to turn the vote the wrong 
way. The man refused to accept the office. ^' It 
will not do f©r me," said he, " to work on the Sab- 
bath. I know how it will end. I have seen it tried, 
till I am satisfied. It is the way to fail, and come 
to nothing." Soon after, one of those rich men did 
fail. The other died. Did either of them receive 
any lasting benefit from the running of their cars 
on the Sabbath ? And do men ordinarily, on the 
whole, gain anything valuable in that way ? 

Another man, who had been accustomed to go 
with the cars on week days, informed his wife that 
he had been requested to go with the cars on the 
Sabbath. She replied, " I take it for granted that 
you do not intend to go." Such was her confidence 
in her husband, that she took it for granted that he 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 31 

would not do a wicked thing for money. He told 
her that if he should not go he might lose his place ; 
that he had no other employment, the times were 
hard, and he had a family to support. "I know 
it," said she, '' but I hope you will not forget that, 
if a man cannot support a family by keeping the 
Sabbath, he certainly cannot support them by break- 
ing it"— a sentence which ought to be written in 
letters of gold, and held up to the view of all Chris- 
tendom. If a man cannot support a family ly keep- 
ing the SahhatJi, he certainly cannot support them hy 
hreaking it, " I am very glad," said the man, " that 
you think so. I think so myself. That was what 
I wanted — to see whether wet think alike." He 
told the superintendent that he liked his situation, 
and should be very sorry to lose it, but that he could 
not go with the mail on the Sabbath ; that he wished 
to attend public worship, and go with his children 
to the Sabbath-school. He did not lose his place, 
nor did he suffer in a pecuniary point of view. He 
prospered more than before, and lives to bear his 
testimony, not only to the duty, but to the utility, 
even for this world, of keeping the Sabbath. The 
prospects of children whose parents go regularly 
with them to the house of God on the Sabbath, are 
far different from those of children whose parents go 
with the rail-cars, or engage in secular business on 



32 THE SABBATH. 

that day. The Lord visits the iniquities of the 
fathers upon the children to the third and fourth 
generation of those who hate him, and shows mercy 
to thousands of those who love him and keep his 
commandments. In the way of righteousness there 
is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no 
death. 

There is a sense in which, under God, a man 
owns himself. But he has no such title even to 
himself, as gives him a right to employ himself in 
worldly business on the Sabbath. That right was 
not given, when his body and soul were given. 
When a man buys a horse he owns him. But he 
has no such title as gives him a right to use the 
horse in secular business on the Sabbath. That 
right was not given when the horse was given. A 
man raises an ox on his farm ; but that gives him 
no right to employ the beast in worldly business on 
the Sabbath. That right was not given when the 
beast was given. On the contrary, that right was 
expressly withheld by the Maker and Owner of the 
beast. Though the heaven of heavens cannot con- 
tain him, yet he cares even for oxen, and provides 
for their wants. He has guarantied to them one 
day of rest in seven, and he will not suffer any one 
to deprive them of it with impunity. 

Men have a right to fire and to water. But it is 



NO RIGHT TO VIOLATE IT. 33 

only for the purposes for which those elements were 
made. A man has no such right to fire that he 
may throw it into his neighbor's building. He has 
no such right to water that he may drown his neigh- 
bor's child in it. And he has no such right to fire, 
or water, as makes it proper to kindle the one, or 
raise the steam of the other, to run a rail-car on the 
Sabbath for purposes of worldly gain. That right 
was not given when the fire and water were given. 
Nor was the wind given to take a vessel from the 
harbor on the Sabbath, carrying the sailors away 
from the house of God and all the means of grace, 
for the purpose of making monef. And men have 
no moral right to employ it for that end. 

They have no right to the elements, or the ani- 
mals, except for the purposes for which they were 
made and given to men. To be employed in secular 
business on the Sabbath is not one of those purposes. 
No man has a right so to employ them, and if he 
does so, it is wholly without right. 

It is also in opposition to an express statute, 
written by the finger of God, on tables of stone ; 
among the permanent, unchanging laws of his king- 
dom, which will be binding in their spirit upon all 
who shall know them, in all countries, to the end 
of time. 

Sab. ManuaL 3 



34 THE SABBATH. 

It is in opposition to another law ; not merely to that 
which was written on the tables of stone, hut to a law 
written hy the finger of God, on the nature of both 
MAN AND BEAST. They •Were not made for seven 
days^ labor in a week, and they cannot endure it with- 
out diminishing their strength and shortening their 
lives. 

The sabbatical institution is not a positive or 
moral institution merely. It is based upon a nat- 
ural law. And if it is the duty of laboring men 
not to commit suicide, it is their duty to keep the 
Sabbath. 

In the year 1832, the British House of Commons 
appointed a committee to investigate the effects of 
laboring seven days in a week compared with those 
of laboring only six, and resting one. That com- 
mittee consisted of Sir Andrew Agnew, Sir Robert 
Peel, Sir Robert Inglis, Sir Thomas Baring, Sir 
George Murray, Fowel Buxton, Lord Morpeth, Lord 
Ashley, Lord Viscount Saridon, and twenty other 
members of Parliament. They examined a great 
number of witnesses, of various professions and 
employments. Among them was John Richard 
Farre, M. D., of London ; of whom they speak aa 
" an acute and experienced physician." The fol- 
lowing is his testimony : 

" I have practised as a physician between thirty 



REQTJmED BY NATURAL LAWS. 35 

and forty years ; and during the early part of my 
life, as the physician of a public medical institution, 
I had charge of the poor in one of the most populous 
districts of London. I have had occasion to observe 
the effect of the observance and non-observance of 
the seventh day of rest during this time. I have 
been in the habit, during a great many years, of 
considering the uses of the Sabbath, and of observ- 
ing its abuses. The abuses are chiefly manifested 
in labor and dissipation. Its use, medically speak- 
ing, is that of a day of rest. 

" As a day of rest, I view it as a day of compen- 
sation for the inadequate restorative power of the 
body under continued labor and excitement. A 
physician always has respect to the preservation of 
the restorative power ; because, if once this be lost, 
his healing office is at an end. A physician is 
anxious to preserve the balance of circulation, as 
necessary to the restorative power of the body. 
The ordinary exertions of man run down the circu- 
lation every day of his life ; and the first general 
law of nature, by which God prevents man from 
destroying himself, is the alternating of day and 
night, that repose may succeed action. But, although 
the night apparently equalizes the circulation, yet 
it does not sufficiently restore its balance for the 
attainment of a long life. Hence, one day in seven. 



36 THE SABBATH. 

by the bounty of Providence, is thrown in as a day 
of compensation, to perfect by its repose the animal 
system. You may easily determine this question, 
as a matter of fact, by trying it on beasts of burden. 
Take that fine animal, the horse, and work him to 
the full extent of his powers every day in the week, 
o.r give him rest one day in seven, and you will soon 
perceive, by the superior vigor with which he per- 
forms his functions on the other six days, that his 
rest is necessary to his well-being. Man, possess- 
ing a superior nature, is borne along by the very 
vigor of his mind, so that the injury of continued 
diurnal exertion and excitement on his animal sys- 
tem is not so immediately apparent as it is in the 
brute ; but, in the long run, he breaks down more 
suddenly ; it abridges the length of his life, and 
that vigor of his old age which (as to mere animal 
power) ought to be the object of his preservation. 

" I consider, therefore, that, in the bountiful pro- 
vision of Providence for the preservation of human 
life, the sabbatical appointment is not, as it has been 
sometimes theologically viewed, simply a precept 
partaking of the nature of a political institution, but 
that it is to be numbered among the natural duties, 
if the preservation of life be admitted to be a duty, 
and the premature destruction of it a suicidal act. 
This is said simply as a physician, and without 



EEQTJIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 37 

reference at all to the theological question ; but if 
you consider further the proper effects of real Chris- 
tianity, namely, peace of mind, confiding trust in 
God, and good-will to man, you will perceive in 
this source of renewed vigor to the mind, and 
through the mind to the body, an additional spring 
of life imparted from this higher use of the Sabbath 
as a holy rest. Were I to pursue this part of the 
question, I should be touching on the duties com- 
mitted to the clergy : but this I will say — ^that 
researches in 'physiology, by the analogy of the 
working of Providence in nature, will show that the 
Divine commandment is not to be considered as an 
arbitrary enactment, but as an appointment neces- 
sary to man. 

^' This is the position in which I would place it, 
as contradistinguished from precept and legislation ; 
I would point out the sabbatical rest as necessary 
to man, and that the great enemies of the Sabbath, 
and consequently the enemies of man, are all labo- 
rious exercises of the body or mind, and dissipation, 
which force the circulation on that day in which it 
should repose ; while relaxation from the ordinary 
cares of life, the enjoyment of this repose in the 
bosom of one's family, with the religious studies 
and duties which the day enjoins — not one of which, 
if rightly exercised, tends to abridge life — consti- 



38 THE SABBATH. 

tute the beneficial and appropriate service of the 
day. 

" I have found it essential to my own well-being, 
as a physician, to abridge my labor on the Sabbath 
to what is actually necessary. I have frequently 
observed the premature death of medical men from 
continued exertion. In warm climates and in active 
service this is painfully apparent. I have advised 
the clergyman also, in lieu of his Sabbath, to rest 
one day in the week : it forms a continual prescrip- 
tion of mine. I have seen many destroyed by their 
duties on that day ; and to preserve others, I have 
frequently suspended them, for a season, from the 
discharge of those duties. I would say, further, 
that, quitting the grosser evils of mere animal living 
from over-stimulation and undue exercise of body, 
the working of the mind in one continued train of 
thought is destructive of life in the most distin- 
guished class of society ; and that senators them- 
selves stand in need of reform in that particular. I 
have observed many of them destroyed by neglect- 
ing this economy of life. Therefore, to all men, 
of whatever class, who must necessarily be occu- 
pied six days in the week, I would recommend to 
abstain on the seventh ; and in the course of life, 
by giving to their bodies the repose, and to their 
minds the change of ideas suited to the day, they 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 39 

would assuredly gain by it. In fact, by the in- 
creased vigor imparted, more mental work would 
be accomplished in their lives. A human being is 
so constituted that he needs a day of rest both from 
mental and bodily labor." 

Such is the opinion of this distinguished man. 
Nor is it peculiar to him. Other physicians of 
great eminence, and in great numbers, have ex- 
pressed the same ; and facts show that this opinion 
is correct. Men who labor seven days in a week are 
not as healthy, and do not ordinarily live as long as 
those who work but six, and rest one. Many a man 
has lost his reason and his life, who, had he kept the 
Sabbath, might have continued to enjoy them. 

The celebrated Wilberforce ascribes his contin- 
uance for so long a time, under such a pressure of 
cares and labors, in no small degree, to his consci- 
entious and habitual observance of the Sabbath. " O 
what a blessed day," he says, " is the Sabbath! 
which allows us a precious interval wherein to 
pause, to come out from the thickets of worldly con- 
cerns, and give ourselves up to heavenly and spir- 
itual objects. Observation and my own experience 
have convinced me, that there is a special blessing on 
a right employment of these intervals. One of their 
prime objects, in my judgment is, to strengthen our 
impressions of invisible things, and to induce a habit 



40 THE SABBATH. 

of living much under their influence." " O, what 
a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves 
of worldly business, like the divine path of the 
Israelites through Jordan !" " Blessed be God, who 
hath appointed the Sabbath, and interposed these 
seasons of recollection.'^ " It is a blessed thing, 
to have the Sunday devoted to God." " There is 
nothing in which I would recommend you to be 
more strictly conscientious, than in keeping the 
Sabbath holy. By this I mean, not only abstaining 
from all unbecoming sports, and common business, 
but from consuming time in frivolous conversation^ 
paying or receiving visits, which, among relations, 
often leads to a sad waste of this precious day. I 
can truly declare, that to me the Sahhath has been 
invaluahle,^^ 

In writing to his friend, he says, " I am strongly 
impressed by the recollection of your endeavor to 
prevail upon the lawyers to give up Sunday consul- 
tations, in which poor Romilly would not concur." 
What became of this same poor Romilly,* who 
would not consent, even at the solicitation of his 
friend, to give up Sunday consultations ? He lost 
his reason, and terminated his own life. 

* Sir Samuel Romilly, solicitor-general of England during 
the administration of Fox, who terminated his life November 
2, 1818. 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 41 

Four years afterwards, Castlereagh came to the 
same untimely end. When Wilberforce heard of 
it, he exclaimed, " Poor fellow ! He was certainly 
deranged — the effect, probably, of continued wear 
of mind. The strong impression on my mind is, 
that it is the effect of the non-observance of the Sab- 
bath ; both as to abstracting from politics, and from 
the constant recurring of the same reflections, and 
as correcting the false views of worldly things, and 
bringing them down to their true diminutiveness. 
Poor Castlereagh ! He was the last man in the 
world who appeared to be likely to be carried away 
into the commission of such an act : so cool, so self- 
possessed. '^ " It is curious to hear the newspapers 
speaking of incessant application to business ; for- 
getting that by the weekly admission of a day of 
rest, which our Maker has enjoined, our faculties 
would be preserved from Ihe effect of this constant 
strain." Being reminded again, by the death of 
Castlereagh, of the case of Sir Samuel Romilly, he 
said, " If he had suffered his mind to enjoy such 
occasional remission, it is highly probable that the 
strings of life would never have snapped from over- 
tension. Alas ! alas ! Poor fellow !" 

Well might Dr. Farre say, " The working of 
mind in one continued train of thought is destruc- 
tive of life in the most distinguished class of society ; 



42 THE SABBATH. 

and senators themselves need reform in that particu- 
lar. I have observed many of them destroyed by 
neglecting this economy of life." 

A distinguished financier, charged with an im- 
mense amount of property during the great pecu- 
niary pressure of 1836 and 1837, said, "I should 
have been a dead man, had it not been for the Sab- 
bath. Obliged to work from morning till night, 
through the whole week, I felt on Saturday, espe- 
cially Saturday afternoon, as if I must have rest. It 
was like going into a dense fog. Everything looked 
dark and gloomy, as if nothing could be saved. I 
dismissed all, and kept the Sabbath in the good old 
way. On Monday it was all bright sunshine. I 
could see through, and I got through. But had it 
not been for the Sabbath, I have no doubt I should 
have been in the grave." 

A distinguished merchant, who for the last 
twenty years has done a vast amount of business, 
remarked to the writer, " Had it not been for the 
Sabbath, I have no doubt I should have been a ma- 
niac long ago." This was mentioned in a company 
of merchants, when one remarked, " That is the 

case exactly with Mr. . He was one of our 

greatest importers. He used to say, that the Sab- 
bath was the best day in the week to plan success- 
ful voyages ] showing that his mind had no Sabbath, 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 43 

He has been in the Insane Hospital for years, and 
will probably die there." Many men are there, or 
in the maniac's grave, because they had no Sab- 
bath. They broke a law of nature, and of nature's 
God, and found " the way of the transgressor to be 
hard." Such cases are so numerous that a British 
writer remarks, " We never knew a man work 
seven days in a week who did not kill himself or 
kill his mind." 

Thomas Sewall, M. D., professor of pathology 
and the practice of medicine in the Columbian Col- 
lege, Washington, D. C., remarks, "While I con- 
sider it the more important design of the institution 
of the Sabbath to assist in religious devotion and 
advance men's spiritual welfare, I have long held 
the opinion that one of its chief benefits has refer- 
ence to his physical and intellectual constitution ; 
affording him, as it does, one day in seven for the 
renovation of his exhausted energies of body and 
mind ; a proportion of time small enough, according 
to the results of my observation, for the accomplish- 
ment of this object. I have remarked, as a general 
fact, that those to whom the Sabbath brings the most 
entire rest from their habitual labors, performed the 
secular duties of the week more vigorously, and 
better than those who continue them without inter, 
mission. For a number of years, I have been in 



44 THE SABBATH. 

elose intimacy and intercourse with men in public 
life, officers of the government, and representatives 
in the national legislature, and eminent jurists, 
whose labors are generally great, and whose duties 
are arduous and pressing. Some of- them have con- 
sidered it their privilege, as well as their duty, to 
suspend their public functions, while others have 
continued them to the going down of the Sabbath 
sun. Upon the commencement of the secular week, 
the one class arise with all their powers invigorated 
and refreshed, while the other come to their duties 
with body and mind jaded and out of tone. I have 
no hesitation in declaring it as my opinion, that if 
the Sabbath were universally observed as a day of 
devotion and of rest from secular occupations, far 
more work of tody and mind would he accomplished, 
and he hetter done; more health would he enjoyed, 
with more of wealth and independence, and we should 
have far less of crime, and poverty, and suffering, ^^ 

Reuben D. Mussey, M. D., professor of surgery 
in the Ohio Medical College, remarks, " The Sab- 
bath should be regarded as a most henevolent insti- 
tution, adapted alike to the physical, mental, and 
moral wants of man. The experiment has been 
made with animals, and the value of one day's rest 
in seven, for those that labor, in recruiting their 
energies and prolonging their activity, has been 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 45 

established beyond a doubt. In addition to constant 
bodily labor, the corroding influence of incessant 
mental exertion and solicitude cannot fail to induce 
premature decay, and to shorten life. And there 
cannot be a reasonable doubt, that, under the due 
observance of the Sabbath, life would, on the aver- 
age, be prolonged more than one-seventh of its 
whole period ; that is, more than seven years in 
fifty.^' 

John P. Harrison, M. D., professor of materia 
medica in the same institution, adds, " The Sabbath 
was made for man. This truth is forcibly exem- 
plified in the benefits conferred on the bodies of 
men by a proper observance of God's holy day of 
rest. Incessant uninterrupted toil wears out the 
energies of man's limited strength. The elasticity 
of the spring is destroyed by unabated pressure. 
The nervous system is especially relieved by alter- 
nations of activity and repose, and by diversifica- 
tion of impressions. The sacred quietness of the 
Sabbath takes off from the brain that excessive ful- 
ness of blood which the mental and bodily exercise 
of six days is calculated to produce. The change 
of dress, the social worship, the physical rest, and 
the transfer of thought and feeling from earthly 
interests to higher objects, not only harmonize the 
moral, but they refresh and invigorate the bodily 



46 THE SABBATH. 

powers. All experience is expressive of this uni- 
versal proposition, that a longer life, and, a greater 
degree of health, are the sure results of a careful 
regard to the commandment, ^ Remember the Sabbath 
day, to keep it holy,' '' 

In the above remarks of Professors Mussey and 
Harrison, numerous other educated and highly re- 
spectable physicians fully concur. 

Ebenezer Alden, M. D., of Massachusetts, remarks, 
" After much reflection, I am satisfied that the Sab- 
bath was made for man, as a physical as well as an 
intellectual and moral being. 1 view it as a day of 
compensation for the inadequate restorative power 
of the body, under continued labor and excitement. 
The Sabbath holds the same relation to the week 
that night does to day. It is mercifully interposed 
as an interruption of labor ; a day when the cares 
and anxieties of life, so far as they relate to the 
body, should be laid aside, that man may recruit 
his strength and renew his exhausted powers. Un- 
necessary labor on the Sabbath is a physical sin, a 
transgression of a physical law, a law to which a 
penalty is attached — a penalty, which cannot be 
evaded. Whoever tramples upon the Sabbath, 
making it a day of toil, instead of a day of rest, is 
living * too fast,' and will, in consequence, the sooner 
reach ^ that bourne from which no traveller returns.' 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 47 

Such is my opinion, and such, I apprehend, will be 
found to be substantially the opinion of every re- 
flecting and well-educated physician." 

At a regular meeting of the New Haven Medical 
Association, composed of twenty-five physicians, 
among whom were the professors of the Medical 
College, the following questions were considered : 

1. Is the position talcen by Dr. Farre in his testi- 
mony before the committee of the British House of 
Commons, in your view, correct ? 

2. Will men who labor but six days in a week 
be more healthy and live longer, other things being 
equal, than those who labor seven ? 

3. Will they do more work, and do it in a better 
manner ? 

The vote on the above was unanimously in the 
affirmative ; signed by Eli Ives, chairman, and Pliny 
A. Jewett, clerk. 

John C. Warren, M. D., of Boston, professor in 
the Medical College of Harvard University, observes, 
" I concur entirely in the opinion expressed by Dr. 
Farre, whom I personally know as a physician of 
the highest respectability. The utility of observing 
the Sabbath as a day of rest, considered in a secular 
point of view, rests upon one of the most general of 
the laws of nature, the law oi 'periodicity , So far as 
my observation has extended, those persons who are 



48 THE SABBATH. 

in the habit of avoiding worldly cares on the Sab- 
bath, are those most remarkable for the perfect 
performance of their duties during the week. The 
influence of a change of thought, on the Sabbath, 
upon the minds of such persons, resembles that of 
the change of food upon the body. It seems to give 
a fresh spring to the mental operations, as the latter 
does to the physical. I have a firm lelief that such 
'persons are able to do more work, and to do it in a 
letter manner, in six days, than if they worked the 
whole seven. The breathing the pure and sublime 
atmosphere of a religious Sabbath refreshes and 
invigorates the spirit. It forms an epoch in our ex- 
istence from which we receive a new impulse, and 
thus constitutes the best preparation for the labors 
of the following week." 

Gilbert Smith, M. D., late president of the College 
of Physicians in the city of New-York, says, " I 
have read with much satisfaction Dr. Farre's testi- 
mony, and unhesitatingly subscribe to his views." 

The opinions of the above, and many other dis- 
tinguished medical gentlemen, are abundantly con- 
firmed by facts. Men who labor but six days in a 
week are more healthy and strong than those who 
labor seven. They do more work, and live, upon 
an average, to a greater age. This has been strik- 
ingly exemplified in numerous cases. 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 49 

Dr. F. Backus and seven other respectable physi- 
cians of Rochester, New York, have given the fol- 
lowing testimony : " We fully concur in the opinions 
expressed by Drs. Farre and Warren. Having 
most of us lived on the Erie Canal since its com- 
pletion, we have uniformly witnessed the same 
deteriorating effects of seven days' working upon 
the physical constitution, both of man and beast, as 
have been so ably depicted by Dr. Farre.'' They 
are more sickly than others, bring upon themselves, 
in great numbers, a premature old age, and sink to 
an untimely /rrave. 

Nor is it true that men who labor six days in a 
week, and rest on one, are more healthy merely, 
and live longer than those who labor seven ; but 
iliey do more work, and in a tetter manner. The ex- 
periment was tried in England upon two thousand 
men. They were employed for years, seven days 
in a week. To render them contented in giving up 
their right to the Sabbath as a day of rest, that lirth- 
right of the human family, they paid them double 
wages on that day, eight days' wages for seven days' 
work. But they could not keep them healthy nor 
make them moral. Nor can men ever be made 
moral, or kept most healthy in that way. Things 
went badly, and they changed their course — em- 
ployed the workmen only six days in a week, and 

Sab. Manual. ^ 



50 THE SABBATH. 

allowed them to rest on the Sabbath. The conse- 
quence was, that they did more work than ever 
before. This, the superintendent said, was owing 
to two causes, viz, the demoralization of the people 
under the first system, and their exhaustion of lodily 
strength, which was visible to the most casual obser- 
ver. Such a course w^ill always demoralize men, 
and diminish their strength. 

• It was tried on the northern frontier of the United 
States, during the last war. When building ves- 
sels, making roads, and performing other laborious 
services, the commander stated that it was not pro- 
fitable to employ the men on the Sabbath, for it was 
found that they could not, in the course of the week, 
do as much work. 

In the year 1839, a committee was appointed in 
the legislature of Pennsylvania, who made a report 
with regard to the employment of laborers on their 
canals. In that report, they say, in reference to 
those who had petitioned against the employment 
of the workmen on the Sabbath, '' They assert, as 
the result of their experience, that both man and beast 
can do more work by resting one day in seven, than 
by working on the whole seven." They then add, 
" Your committee feel free to confess, that their own 
experience as business men, farmers, or legislators, 
corresponds with the assertion.'' 



REQUIRED BY NATUEAL LAWS. 51 

The minister of marine in France has addressed 
a letter to all the maritime prefects, directing that 
no workman, except in case of absolute necessity, 
be employed in the government dock-yards on the 
Sabbath. One reason which he gives is, that men 
who do not rest on the Sabbath do not perform as 
much labor during the week;^ and, of course, that it 
is not profitable to the state to have labor performed 
on that day. Another reason is, that it is useful to 
the state to promote among the laboring classes the 
religious observance of the Sabbath, This is, no 
doubt, the case. And one way to promote among 
the laboring classes the religious observance of the 
Sabbath, is for functionaries of the government to 
suspend their secular business, and religiously ob- 
serve the day themselves. Let the distinguished 
classes of society set an example of keeping the Sab- 
bath, and others may be expected to follow it. And 
let employers in no case unnecessarily deprive those 
whom they employ of the rest and privileges which 
God has provided for them, and the enjoyment of 
which would promote the mutual good of ail. The 
policy which seeks to gain by the violation of the laws 
which Infinite wisdom and goodness have established, 
is selfish, short' sighted, and defeats its own end. 

The experiment was tried in a large flouring es- 
tablishment. For a number of years they worked 



52 THE SABBATH. 

the mills seven days in a week. The superintend- 
ent was then changed. He ordered the men to stop 
the works at eleven o'clock on Saturday night, and 
not to start them till one o'clock on Monday morn- 
ing, thus allowing a full Sabbath every week. And 
the same men, during the year, actually ground fifty 
thousand bushels more*than had ever been ground, 
in a single year, in that establishment before; The 
men, having been permitted to cleanse themselves, 
put on their best apparel, rest from worldly busi- 
ness, go with their families to the house of God, and 
devote the Sabbath to its appropiate duties, were 
more healthy, moral, punctual and diligent. They 
lost less time in drinking, dissipation and quarrels. 
They were more clear-headed and whole-hearted, 
knew better how to do things, and were more dis- 
posed to do them in the right way. 

This, under similar circumstances, will always 
be the case. Men who labor six days in a week, 
and rest one, can do more work in all kinds of busi- 
ness, and in all parts of the world, and do it in a 
better manner, than those who labor seven. The 
Sabbath was not designed, and it is not adapted to 
injure men, even in their business for this world, 
out to benefit them ; and those who will not keep it 
reject their own mercies. 

It has been said that those who manufacture salt 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 53 

by boiling must violate the Sabbath, because it will 
not do to let the kettles cool down as often as once a 
week. But a gentleman tried the experiment, who 
said that, if he could not keep the Sabbath he would 
not make salt. He had thirty-two kettles. He 
allowed the fires to go out, and all the works to stop 
from Saturday till Monday. His men attended pub- 
lic worship on the Sabbath. In the course of the 
season they boiled seventy-eight days, and made, 
upon an average, over two hundred bushels of salt 
a day — in all, fifteen thousand eight hundred and 
seventy bushels ; and at an expense, for breakage 
and repairs, of only six cents. At the close of the 
season he told his Sabbath-breaking neighbors how 
much he had made ; but it was so much more than 
they had made themselves, that they could hardly 
believe him. Their expenses for breakage and re- 
pairs had been much greater than his. Not a man, 
with the same dimension of kettles, had made as 
much salt as he. Resting on the Sabbath does not, 
on the whole, hinder men in their business. It helps 
them both as to the quantity and the quality of their 
work. 

Even fishermen abroad on the ocean, who fish 
but six days in a week, ordinarily prosper better 
tiian those who fish seven. A gentleman who re- 
sides in a fishing town, and who has made extensive 



54 THE SABBATH. 

inquiries, remarks, " Those who fish on the Sabbath 
do not, ordinarily, take any more during the season, 
than those who keep the Sabbath. They do not 
make more money, or prosper better for this world. 
They are not more respectable or useful, nor are 
their families. Their children are not more moral, 
and it seems to be no better for them, in any respecty 
than if they fished and did business only six days 
in a week. 

" One man followed fishing eight years. The 
first four he fished on the Sabbath. The next four 
he strictly kept the Sabbath, and is satisfied that it 
was for his advantage in a temporal point of view. 
Another man, who was accustomed for some years 
to fish on the Sabbath, afterwards discontinued it, 
and found that his profits were greater than before. 
Another man testifies that, in the year 1827, he and 
his men took more fish by far than any who were 
associated with them, though he kept the Sabbath 
and they did not. It was invariably his practice to 
rest from Saturday till Monday. Though it was an 
unfavorable season for the fisheries, he was greatly 
prospered in every way, and to such an extent that 
many regarded his success as almost miraculous. 

'^ Examples like the above might be multiplied to 
almost any extent. So far as I can learn by dili. 
gent inquiry, all who have left ofi* fishing on 






REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 55 

Sabbath, without an exception^ think the change has 
been for their temporal advantage. 

*' He who has been more successful than any 
other among us this season, has strictly kept the 
Sabbath, as have also his men. They went to the 
coast of Labrador, were gone less time than usual, 
took more fish than the crew of any other vessel, 
and more than they could bring home. They 
gave away thirty-five hundred fish before they lefl 
the ground. In thirteen days they caught eleven 
hundred quintals." 

A gentleman belonging to another fishing town, 
which sends out more than two hundred vessels in 
a year, writes as follows : "I think it may safely 
be stated tliat those vessels which have not fished 
on the Sabbath have, taken together, met with more 
than ordinary success. The vessel whose earnings 
were the highest, the last year and the year be- 
fore, was one on board which the Sabbath was 
kept by refraining from labor, and by religious 
worship. There is one firm which has had eight 
vessels in its employ this season. Seven have fished 
on the Sabbath, and one has not. That one has 
earned seven hundred dollars more than the most 
successful of the seven. There are two other 
firms employing each three vessels. Two out of 
the three, in each case, have kept the Sabbath, and 



56 THE SABBATH. 

in each case have earned more than two-thirds of the 
profits.^' 

The Sabbatical institution is in accordance with the 
nature of man, and the observance of it is profitable 
unto all things. 

The same law is impressed by the same Divine 
hand on the nature of the laboring animals. When 
employed but six days in a week, and allowed to 
rest one*5 they are more healthy than they can be 
when employed during the whole seven. They do 
more work and live longer. 

The experiment was tried on a hundred and 
twenty horses. They were employed, for years, 
seven days in a week. But they became unhealthy, 
and finally died so fast that the owner thought it too 
expensive, and put them on a six days' arrangement. 
After this he was not obliged to replenish them one- 
fourth part as often as before. Instead of sinking con- 
tinually, his horses came up again, and lived years 
longer than they could have done on the other plan. 

A manufacturing company, which had been ac- 
customed to carry their goods to market with their 
own teams, kept them employed seven days in a 
week, as that was the time in which they could go 
to the market and return. But by permitting the 
teams to rest on the Sabbath, they found that ihey 
could drive them the same distance in six days, that 



KEQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 57 

they formerly did in seven, and with the same keep- 
ing preserve them in better order. 

At a tavern in Pennsylvania, a man, v/ho had 
arrived the evening before, was asked on Sabbath 
morning whether he intended to pursue his journey 
on that day. He answered, '' No." He was asked, 
"Why not?" "Because," said he, "I am on a 
long journey, and wish to perform it as soon as I 
can. I have long been accustomed to travel on 
horseback, and have found that, if I stop on the 
Sabbath, my horse will travel farther during the 
week than if I do not." 

A gentleman in Vermont, who was in the habit 
of driving his horses twelve miles a day seven days 
in a week, afterwards changed his practice, and 
drove them but six days, allowing them to rest one. 
He then found that, with the same keeping, he 
could drive them fifteen miles a day, and preserve 
them in as good order as before. So that a man 
may rest on the Sabbath, and let his horses rest, 
yet promote the benefit of both, and be in all 
respects the gainer. 

Two neighbors in the state of New York, each 
with a drove of sheep, started on the same day for 
a distant market. One started several hours before 
the other, and travelled uniformly every day. The 
other rested every Sabbath. Yet he arrived at the 



58 THE SABBATH. 

market first, with his flock in a better condition 
than that of the other. In giving an account of it 
he said, that he drove his sheep on Monday about 
seventeen miles, on Tuesday not over sixteen, and 
so lessening each day, till on Saturday he drove 
them only about eleven miles. But on Monday, 
after resting on the Sabbath, they would travel 
again seventeen miles, and so on each week. But 
his neighbor's sheep, which were not allowed to 
rest on the Sabbath, before they arrived at the mar- 
ket could not travel without injury more than six 
or eight miles in a day. 

Two men from another part of the same State, 
each with a drove of sheep, started at the same time 
for another market. One rested and the other trav- 
elled on the Sabbath, through the whole journey. 
And the man who kept the Sabbath arrived at the 
market as many days before the other as he rested 
Sabbath-days on the road. 

A number of men started together from Ohio, 
with droves of cattle for Philadelphia. They had 
often been before, and had been accustomed to drive 
on the Sabbath as on other days. One had now 
changed his views as to the propriety of travelling 
on that day. On Saturday he inquired for pas- 
tures. His associates wondered that so shrewd a 
man should think of consuming so great a portion 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 59 

of his profits by stopping with such a drove a whole 
day. He stopped, however, and kept the Sabbath. 
They, thinking that they could not afford to do so, 
went on. On Monday he started again. In the 
course of the week he passed them, arrived first in 
the market, and sold his cattle to great advantage. 
So impressed were the others with the benefits of 
thus keeping the Sabbath, that ever afterwards they 
followed his example. 

A gentleman started from Connecticut with his 
family for Ohio. He was on the road about four 
weeks, and rested every Sabbath. From morning 
to night, others, journeying the same way, were 
passing by. Before the close of the week he passed 
them. Those who went by late on the Sabbath he 
passed on Monday ; those who went by a little ear- 
lier he passed on Tuesday ; and so on, till before 
the next Sabbath he^ had passed them all. His 
horses were no better than theirs, nor were they 
better fed. But having had the benefit of resting on 
the Sabbath, according to the command of God and 
the law of nature, they could out-travel those who 
had violated that lav/. 

A company of men in the state of New York 
purchased a tract of land in Northern Illinois, and 
started with their families and teams to take posses- 
sion of it. \ part of them rested on the Sabbath, 



60 THE SABBATH. 

The others continued their journey on that as on 
other days. Before the next Sabbath those who had 
stopped passed by the others. This they did every 
week, and each succeeding week a little earlier than 
they did the week before. Had the journey con- 
tinued, they would soon have been so far ahead that 
the others would not be able to overtake them on the 
Sabbath. They were the first to arrive at their new 
homes, with men and teams in good order. After- 
wards the others came jaded and worn out by the vio- 
lation of the law of nature and the command of God. 

Great numbers have made similar experiments, 
and uniformly with similar results ; so that it is now 
settled hy facts, that the observance of the Sabbath 
is required by a natural law, and that, were man 
nothing more than an animal, and were his exist- 
ence to be confined to this world, it would be for his 
interest to observe the Sabbath. Should all the 
business, which is not required by the appropriate 
duties of the Sabbath, be confined to six days in a 
week, the only time Vv^hich God has made or given 
to man, or to which he has a right for that purpose, 
both man and beast might enjoy higher health, obtain 
longer life, and do more work, and in a better manner, 
than by the secular employment of the whole seven. 

But man is an angel as well as an animal. He 
has a soul as well as a body. The Sabbath was 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 61 

made for both, especially for the soul. It derives 
its chief importance from its influence on that which 
is deathless. It is the great institution for elevating, 
purifying, and blessing the soul, and fitting it not only 
for usefulness and happiness on the earth, hut for 
glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life in heaven. 

Even the intellect, incessantly employed, becomes 
jaded, enfeebled, and deranged. Men of strong and 
vigorous powers, disciplined and trained for the 
most effective efforts, have found by experience, 
that they can accomplish more, and in a better man- 
ner, by employing the mind, especially in one con- 
tinued train, not over six days in a week, and rest- 
ing one, than they can by employing it the whole 
seven. After trying both ways, they find that they 
can accomplish in one what they cannot accomplish 
in the other, and have thus proved that the Sabbath 
was made for the intellect, as well as the other parts 
of man. Scientific and literary men, who study 
but six days in a week, ordinarily make greater 
progress, in the course of the year, than those who 
study seven. Experience has shown the same with 
reference to students in colleges. After the rest 
and duties of the Sabbath, the mind is in a better 
state for vigorous and successful effort. The fol- 
lowing declaration of Sir Matthew Hale is an illus- 
tration of this truth : 



62 ,THE SABBATH. 

" Though my hands and my mmd have been as 
full of secular business, both before and after I was 
judge, as, it may be, any man's in England, yet I 
never wanted time in six days to ripen and fit my- 
self for the business and employments I had to do, 
though I borrowed not one minute from the Lord's 
day to prepare for it, by study or otherwise. But, 
on the other hand, if I had, at any time, borrowed 
from this day any time for my secular employment, 
I found it did further me less than if I had let it 
alone ; and therefore, when some years' experience, 
upon a most attentive and vigilant observation, had 
given me this instruction, I grew peremptorily re- 
solved never in this kind to make a breach upon 
the Lord's day, which I have now strictly observed 
for more than thirty years." He also declared that 
it had become almost proverbial with him, when any 
one importuned him to attend to secular business 
on the Sabbath, to tell them if they expected it to 
" succeed amiss," they might desire him to under- 
take it on that day ; that he feared even to think of 
secular business on the Sabbath, because the resolu- 
tion then taken would be disappointed or unsuccess- 
ful ; and that the more faithfully he applied himself 
to the duties of the Lord's day, the more happy and 
successful was his business during the week. 

The late distinguished Dr. Wilson, pastor of the 



REQUIRED BY NATURAL LAWS. 63 

First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, for a 
number of years before he became a preacher of 
the Gospel, was an eminent lawyer in the state of 
Delaware. He was accustomed, when pressed with 
business, to make out his briefs and prepare for his 
Monday's pleadings on the Sabbath. But he so 
uniformly failed, during the week, in carrying out 
his Sunday plans, that it arrested his attention. As 
a philosopher, he inquired into the cause of his uni- 
form failure, and came to the conclusion that it 
might be, and probably was on account of his 
violation of the Sabbath, by employing it in secular 
business. He therefore, from that time, abandoned 
the practice of doing anything for his clients on that 
day. The difficulty ceased. His efforts on Mon- 
day were as successful as on other days. Such 
were the facts in his case, and many others have 
testified to similar facts in their experience. 

A mechanic in Massachusetts, whose business 
required special skill and care, was accustomed, at 
times, when pressed with business, to pursue it on 
the Sabbath, after having followed it during six 
days of the week. But he so often made mistakes, 
by which he lost more than he gained, that he aban- 
doned the practice, as one which he could not afford 
to continue. Mind is no more made to work vigor 
ously and continuously in one course of effort sever 



64 ' THE SABBATH. 

days in a week than the body ; and it cannot do it 
to advantage. 

There are laws of mind as well as of body, which 
no man can annul ; and they have penalties which 
no transgressor can evade. He may seem for a 
time to escape, and even to prosper ; but judgment 
will come. If he continues his course of transgres- 
sion, he will wither and droop, or, long before the 
proper time, and often suddenly, will come to his 
end, and have none to help him. The memory of 
many a man can recall instances among his own 
acquaintance which have been striking illustrations 
of this truth. Mind as well as body must have rest, 
and the more regularly it has it, according to the 
Divine appointment, other things being equal, the 
more perfect will be the health, and the greater the 
capability of judicious, well-balanced, long-contin- 
ued and effective efforts. 

Clergymen, whose official duties require vigorous 
and toilsome efforts on the Sabbath, must have some 
other day for rest, or their premature loss of voice, 
of health, or of life, will testify to them and to others 
the reality and hurtfulness of theii' transgressions. 
It is thought, that for them, Saturday is the best 
day for rest, but if they cannot have that, let them 
take Monday. Distinguished scholars, jurists, and 
statesmen, have often fallen victims to the trans- 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 65 

gression of this law. Students, literary and profes- 
sional men, who have thoroughly tried both ways, 
have all found that they could accomplish more 
mental labor, and in a better manner, by abstaining 
from their ordinary pursuits on the Sabbath, than by 
employing the whole week in one continuous course 
of efforts. 

But the great evil of transgressing the law of the 
Sabbath is on the heart, Man is a moral as well as 
an intellectual being. His excellence, his useful- 
ness, and his happiness depend chiefly on his char- 
acter. To the right formation and proper culture 
of this the Sabbath is essential. Without it, all other 
means will, to a great extent, fail. You may send 
out Bibles as on the wings of the wind, scatter relig- 
ious Tracts like the leaves of the forest, and even 
preach the Gospel, not only in the house of God, but 
at the corner of every street ; if men will not stop 
their worldly business, travelling and amusements, 
and attend to the voice which speaks to them from 
heaven, the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of 
riches, and the pride of life, will choke all these 
means, and render them unfruitful. Such men do 
not avail themselves of the institution which God 
has appointed to give efficacy to moral influence, 
and which he blesses by his Spirit for that purpose. 
On the other hand, men who keep the Sabbath feel 



66 THE SABBATH. 

its benign effects. Even the external observance of 
it, is, to a great extent, connected with external mo- 
rality ; while its internal as well as external obser- 
vance will promote purity of heart and life. 

Of twelve hundred and thirty-two convicts who 
had been committed to the Auburn State Prison 
previously to the year 1838, four hundred and 
forty-seven had been watermen, either boatmen or 
sailors — men who, to a great extent, had been kept 
at work on the Sabbath, and thus deprived of the 
rest and privileges of that day. Of those twelve 
hundred and thirty-two convicts, only twenty-six 
had conscientiously kept the Sabbath. 

Of fourteen hundred and fifty who had been com- 
mitted to that prison previously to 1839, five hun- 
dred and sixty-three had been of the same class of 
men ; and of the whole, only twenty-seven had kept 
the Sabbath. 

Of sixteen hundred and fifty-three who had been 
committed to that prison previously to 1840, six 
hundred and sixty had been watermen, and twenty- 
nine only ha4 kept the Sabbath. Of two hundred 
and three who were committed in one year, ninety- 
seven had been watermen, and only two out of the 
whole had conscientiously kept the Sabbath. 

Thus it appears, from official documents, that 
while the watermen were but a small proportion of 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 67 

the whole population, they furnished a very large 
proportion of the convicts ; much larger, it is be- 
lieved, than they would have done had they enjoyed 
tlie rest and privileges of the Christian Sabbath. It 
appears, also, that nearly all the convicts were Sab- 
bath-breakers — men who disregarded the duties and 
neglected the privileges of that blessed day. 

The watermen had been kept at work, in many 
cases, under the delusive plea that, should they be 
permitted to rest on the Sabbath, they would become 
more wicked — an idea which facts, under the means 
of grace, show to be false. 

On the Delaware and Hudson Canal, on which 
are more than seven hundred boats, the experiment 
has been tried. The directors were told at first, 
that should they not open the locks on the Sabbath, 
the men would congregate in large numbers, and 
would become more wicked than if they should 
continue to pursue their ordinary business ; but the 
result is directly the reverse. Since the locks have 
not been opened, and official business has not been 
transacted on the Lord's day, the men have become 
more moral as well as more healthy, and the interests 
of all have been manifestly promoted by the change. 

Let any class of men enjoy the rest and privileges 
of the Sabbath, and the effects will prove that it 
" was made for man," by Him who made man ; and 



68 THE SABBATH. 

who, in view of all its consequences, especially as 
the great means of giving efficacy to moral govern- 
ment, with truth pronounced it " very good." 

On the other hand, take away from man the in- 
fluence of the Sabbath and its attendant means of 
grace, and you take away the safeguard of his soul ; 
you bar up the highway of moral influence, and 
lay him open to the incursions and conquests of 
Satan and his legions. Thus man becomes an easy 
prey, and is led captive by the adversary at his wilL 

Of one hundred men admitted to the Massachu- 
setts State Prison in one year, eighty-nine had lived 
in habitual violation of the Sabbath and neglect of 
public worship. 

A gentleman in England, who was in the habit, 
for more than twenty years, of daily visiting con- 
victs, states that, almost universally, when brought 
to a sense of their condition, they lamented their 
neglect of the Sabbath, and pointed to their viola- 
tion of it as the priiicipal cause of their ruin. That 
prepared them for, and led them on, step by step, 
to the commission of other crimes, and finally to the 
commission of that which brought them to the prison, 
and in many cases to the gallows. He hcis letters 
almost innumerable, he says, from others, proving 
the same thing, and that they considered the viola- 
tion of the Sabbath the great cause of their ruin. 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 69 

Fie has attended three hundred and fifty at the place 
of execution, when they v/ere put to death for their 
crimes. And nine out of ten who were brought to 
a sense of their condition, attributed the greater part 
of their departure from God to their neglect of the 
Sabbath. 

Another gentleman, who has been conversant 
with prisoners for more than thirty years, states 
that he found in all his experience, both with regard 
to those who had been capitally convicted and those 
who had not, that they referred to the violation of 
the Sabbath as the chief cause of their crimes ; and 
that this has been confirmed by all the opportunities 
he has had of examining prisoners. Not that this 
has been the only cause of crime ; but, like the use 
of intoxicating liquors, it has greatly increased pub- 
lic and private immorality, and been the means, in 
a multitude of cases, of premature death. 

Another gentleman, who has had the charge of 
more than one hundred thousand prisoners, and has 
taken special pains to ascertain the causes of their 
crimes, says that he does not recollect a single case 
of capital offence where the party had not been a 
Sabbath-breaker. And in many cases they assured 
him that Sabbath-breaking was the first step in their 
downward course. Indeed, he says, with reference 
to prisoners of all classes, nineteen out of twenty have 



70 THE SABBATH. 

neglected the Sahhath and oilier ordinances of religion. 
And he has often met with prisoners about to expiate 
their crimes by an ignominious death, who earnestly 
enforced upon survivors the necessity of an obser- 
vance of the Sabbath, and ascribed their own course 
of iniquity to a non-observance of that day. 

Says the keeper of one of the largest prisons, 
^'Nine-tenths of our inmates are those who did not 
value the Sahhath, and were not in the hahit of attend- 
ing puhlic worship,^' 

It is not so strange, then, if human nature were 
the same, and the effect of Sabbath-breaking the 
same under the Jewish dispensation, as it is now, 
that God should cause the Sabbath-breaker, like 
the murderer, to be put to death. Sabbath-breaking 
prepared the way for murder, and often led to it; 
and it would not be possible to prove that Sabbath- 
breaking, now, is not doing even more injury to the 
people of the United States than murder. Should 
every person in this country habitually keep the 
Sabbath and attend public worship, murders would, 
to a great extent, if not wholly cease ; and prisons 
become comparatively empty. Sahhath-keepers very 
rarely commit murder, or perpetrate other heifiious 
crimes. 

The secretary of a Prison Discipline Society, who 
has long been extensively conversant with prisoners, 



DESECRATION LEADS TO VICE. 71 

was asked how many persons he supposed there 
are in State Prisons who observed the Sabbath and 
habitually attended public worship, up to the time 
when they committed the crime for which they 
were imprisoned. He answered, " I do not suppose 
there are any.'^ An inquiry into the facts, it is 
believed, would show, with but few exceptions, this 
opinion to be correct. Men who keep the Sabbath 
experience the restraining, if not the renewing and 
sanctifying grace of God. While they keep the Sab- 
bath, God keeps them. When they reject the Sabbath, 
he rejects them ; and thus suffers them to eat the fruit of 
their own way, and to be filed with their own devices, 
A father, whose son was addicted to riding out 
for pleasure on the Sabbath, was told that if he did 
not stop it his son would be ruined. He did not 
stop it, but sometimes set the example of riding out 
for pleasure himself. His son became a man, was 
placed in a responsible situation, and intrusted with 
a large amount of property. Soon he was a de- 
faulter, and absconded. In a different part of the 
country he obtained another responsible situation, 
and was again intrusted with a large amount of 
property. Of that he defrauded the owner, and fled 
again. He was apprehended, tried, convicted, and > 
sent to the State Prison. After years spent in soli- 
tude and labor, he wrote a letter to his father, and, 



72 THE SABBATH. 

after recounting his course of crime, he added 
" That was the effect of breaking the Sabhath when 1 
was a hoy.^' 

Should every convict who broke the Sabbatii 
when a boy, and whose father set him the example, 
speak out from all the State Prisons of the country^ 
they would tell a story which would cause the ears 
of every one that should hear it to tingle. 

A distinguished merchant, long accustomed to 
extensive observation and experience, and who 
had gained an uncommon knowledge of men, said, 
" When I see one of my apprentices or clerks rid- 
ing out on the Sabbath, on Monday I dismiss him. 
Such a one cannot be trusted.'^ 

Facts echo the declaration — "Such a one cannot 
be trusted." He is naturally no worse than others. 
But he casts off fear, lays himself open to the as- 
saults of the adversary, and rejects the means of 
Divine protection. He ventures unarmed into the 
camp of the enemy, and is made a demonstration to 
the world of the great truth, that " he that trusteth 
to his own heart is a fool." Not a man in Christen- 
dom, whatever his character or standing, can know- 
ingly and presumptuously trample on the Sabbath, 
^ devoting it to worldly business, travelling, pleasure, 
or amusement, and not debase his character, in. 
crease his wickedness, and augment the danger 



DESECR-ATION LEADS TO VICE, 73 

that he will be abandoned of God, and given up to 
final impenitence and ruin. 

It was on Sabbath morning, while out on an ex- 
cursion for pleasure, that he who was intrusted with 
great responsibilities, and was thought to be worthy 
of confidence, committed an act which was like the 
letting out of great waters, which ceased not to flow, 
till, wearing their channels broader and deeper, 
they overwhelmed him and others in one common 
ruin. Many a man, setting at nought the Divine 
counsel with regard to the Sabbath, and refusing, 
on that day, to hearken to his instruction or reproof, 
almost before he was aware of it, has found him- 
self abandoned of God, in the hands of the enemy, 
chained and fettered by transgression, sinking from 
depth to depth, till he was suddenly destroyed, and 
there was no remedy. 

Let every young man, especially he who has gone 
out from his father''s counsels, and his mother^s 
prayer^s, remember the Sahbath, and keep it holy, be 
found habitually in the house of God, and under the 
sound of that Gospel which is able to make him loise 
unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. Let 
him avoid worldly business and amusements on that 
day, as he would avoid the gate of hell. 

Even where they do not lead to abandonment in 
crime, they harden the heart, pollute the afiections, 



74 THE SABBATH. 

sear the conscience, and prevent the efficacy of all 
the means of grace. They carry the soul away 
from God, on the rapid stream of time, towards 
eternal perdition. Their language is, " No God — 
no heaven — no hell ! No human accountability for 
the things done in the body ! Who is Jehovah, that 
I should serve him ? I know not Jehovah, neither 
will I obey his voice.'' 

In its progress. Sabbath-breaking sometimes seems 
to become a trial of strength between the Sabbath- 
breaker and his Maker. So besotted is he, that he 
acts as if he thought he could outwit or overcome 
the Almighty, and gain something valuable by op- 
posing his will. 

A man in the State of New York remarked that 
he intended to cheat the Lord out of the next Sab- 
bath, by going to a neighboring town to visit his 
friends. He could not afford to take one of his own 
days, and therefore resolved to cheat the Lord out 
of his. On Saturday he went with his team into a 
forest, to get some wood. By the fall of a tree he 
was placed in such a condition that he did not at- 
tempt to carry his intended fraud into execution. 
He was willing to stay at home. 

But another man in the same State, who had spent 
the Sabbath in getting in his grain, said that he had 
fairly cheated the Almighty out of one day. He 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 75 

boasted of it as a mark of his superiority. On Tues- 
day, the lightning struck his barn. He gained 
nothing valuable by working on the Sabbath. 

Another man acted as if he thought all the evil 
of working on the Sabbath consisted in its being 
seen. He went out of sight, behind the woods, and 
spent the day in gathering his grain, and putting it 
into a vacant building near his field. But the light- 
ning struck the building, and, with the grain, it was 
burned to ashes. He who made the eye saw what 
this man did, and so ordered things, in his providence, 
that he' gained no real good by his transgression. 
Men are not apt, in the end, to gain in that way. 

Seven young men, in a town in Massachusetts, 
started in the same business nearly at the same time. 
Six of them had some property, or assistance from 
their friends, and followed their business seven days 
in a week. The other had less property than either 
of the six. He had less assistance from others, and 
worked in his business only six days in a week. 
He is now the only man who has property, and has 
not failed in his business. 

A distinguished merchant in a large city, said to 
the v/riter, '' It is about thirty years since I came 
to this city \ and every man through this whole 
range, who came down to his store, or suffered his 
counting-room to be opened on the Sabbath, has lost 



76 THE SABBATH. 

his property. There is no need of breaking the 
Sabbath, and no benefit from it. We have not had a 
vessel leave the harbor on the Sabbath for more than 
twenty years. It is altogether better to get them off 
on a week day than on the Sabbath." It is better even 
for this world. And so with all kinds of secular busi- 
ness. Men may seem to gain for a time by the profa- 
nation of the Sabbath ; hut it does not end well. Their 
disappointment, even here, often comes suddenly. 

The writer of this, in a late journey, passed near 
the houses of four men who started together for the 
Far West. On Sabbath morning they discussed the 
question, whether it was right and best for them to 
travel on the Lord's day. The result was, three of 
them went onward, and reached the city of Buffalo 
in time to take the steamboat Erie, on her last voy- 
age. On that same Sabbath morning a company 
of travellers, in another place, discussed the same 
question with regard to the propriety of their travel- 
ling on that day. AiW they separated one from 
another. A part went on their journey, and a part 
stopped and attended public worship. Those who 
went on arrived in time to take the same boat. But 
they had not proceeded far when it took fire, and 
v/as soon in a blaze. Some were consumed ; others 
jumped overboard, and were drowned. " Never," 
said a man who went out to their assistance — " never 



DESECRATION XTNPROFITABLE. 77 

shall I forget the sound that struck upon my ear, 
when I first came v/ithin hearing of that boat. They 
were hanging on the sides, and the burning cinders 
were pouring down on their heads, and they were 
dropping off, and dropping off. O, it was like the 
wailing of despair.'^ 

Those who stopped and attended public worship 
arrived in safety, took another boat, and live to 
testify not only to the duty, but to the utility of re- 
membering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. 
" My own brother," said a man who heard the 
above statement, " was in that very company. He 
stopped and saved his life." How many other men 
have saved their lives, and how many have instru- 
mentally saved their souls, by keeping the Sabbath 
and performing its appropriate duties, none but the 
Lord of the Sabbath and the Saviour of souls can 
tell. Certain it is, that in the keeping of his com- 
mands, though it should not exempt men from sud- 
den death, there is great reward. 

A man and his wife were very desirous of arriving 
in New York in season to take the steamboat Lex- 
ington. They were so anxious that they travelled 
a great portion of the Sabbath. They arrived in 
season, took the boat, and were among the multi- 
tude who, on that dismal night, perished in the 
flames or found a watery grave. 



78 THE SABBATH. 

A man on the previous Sabbath requested his 
neighbor to go with him to New York, for the pur- 
pose of taking the same boat. His neighbor refused 
because it was the Sabbath. He was urged, but 
would not go. The other man then went to his 
son, and urged him to go. He was reluctant, but, 
being strongly urged, he finally consented. They 
started on their journey. They reached the boat ; 
but it was to die, and go to judgment. They did not 
gain what they expected by travelling on the Sab- 
bath. Great numbers have often, very often, when 
they expected to gain an important object, been dis- 
appointed, suddenly and awfully disappointed. 

That company of persons who went out on the 
Sabbath in a pleasure-boat, expected to be gainers. 
But the tumult within, before the tumult without, 
told them that all was not right ; and when the boat 
upset, and the hapless victims sank to rise no more, 
new testimony was added to that of thousands, that 
disobedience to God is not the way to gain, even for 
this world. 

A distinguished mechanic, in a part of the coun- 
try where the Sabbath was disregarded, had been 
accustomed for a time to keep his men at work on 
that day. He was afterwards at work for a man 
who regarded the Sabbath, and who, on Saturday, 
was anxious to know what he intended to do ] and 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 79 

therefore asked, " What do you expect to do to- 
morrow V He said, " I expect to stop, and keep 
the Sabbath. I used to work on the Sabbath, and 
often obtained higher wages than on other dayf». 
But I so often lost, during the week, more than a)! 
I could gain on the Sabbath, that I gave it up yearr 
ago. I have kept the Sabbath since, and I find if 
works better." It does work better. And all whe 
make the experiment will, in due time, find it so. 

Men who work against the commandment of God^ 
work against the providence of God ; and that provi- 
dence will he too strong for them, 

" I used," said the master of a vessel, " some- 
times to work on the Sabbath ; but something would 
happen, by which I lost so much more than I gained 
by working on the Sabbath, that on one occasion, 
after having been at work and met with some dis- 
aster, I swore most profanely that I never would 
work again, or suffer my men to work on that day. 
And I never have." He finds it works better. He 
does not swear now. He has induced many others 
not to swear, and not to break the Sabbath. He finds 
that in the keeping of God's commands there is great 
reward. All who obey them will find the same. 

An old gentleman in Boston remarked, " Men do not 
gain anything by working on the Sabbath. I can re- 
collect men who, when I was a boy, used to load their 



80 TEE SABBATH. 

vessels down on Long Wharf, and keep their men 
at work from morning to night on the Sabbath day. 
But they have come to nothing. Their children have 
come to nothing. ' Depend upon it, men do not gain 
anything, in the end, by working on the Sabbath." 

In another part of the country an old man re- 
marked, " I can recollect more than fifty years ; 
but I cannot recollect a case of a man, in this town, 
who was accustomed to work on the Sabbath, who 
did not fail or lose his property before he died." 

There are some cases, however, where men who 
habitually break the Sabbath do not fail ; they make 
property, and keep it till they die. 

A case of this sort came to the knowledge of the 
writer. The man was notorious for disregarding 
the Sabbath, and prosecuting his worldly business 
on that day. He increased his riches till he thought 
ihat he had enough, and began to make preparation 
to retire and enjoy it. But before he was ready for 
that, he lost his reason, and died a maniac. 

But all Sabbath-breakers who make property and 
keep it, do not lose their reason. Some continue to 
enjoy it while they live, and transmit their property 
to their children. But it is less likely to be a bless- 
ing to them than if it had been acquired in obedience 
to the laws of God. It does not wear well, and, 
while it lasts, often appears to be under a curse. 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. §1 

" Those views," said a man, " are all superstition ; 
the idea that it is not profitable or safe to work on 
the Sabbath as on other days is false, I will prove 
that it is false." So he attempted it. He ploughed 
his field and sowed his grain on the Sabbath. It 
came up and grew finely. Often, during the sea- 
son, he pointed to it, in proof that Sabbath-day labor 
is safe and profitable. He reaped it, and stacked it 
up m the field. His boys took the gun, and went 
out into the woods. It was a dry time, and they 
set the leaves on fire. The wind took the fire ; it 
swept over the field, and nought but the blackness 
of ashes marked the place where the grain stood. 
" Let not him that putteth on the harness boast him- 
self as he that putteth it off*." He could not prove, 
though he tried long and hard, that it is safe or pro- 
fitable to work on the Sabbath. 

But another man thought he had succeeded bet- 
ter. He even boasted that he had found, by experi- 
ment, that it was more profitable to work on the 
Sabbath than to rest and attend public worship. 
The Sabbath oii which he had finished the gathering 
in of his crops he told his neighbors, who had at- 
tended public worship, how much wiser he had been 
than others. He had worked on the Sabbath all the 
year, and had thus gained more than fifty days, 
which his neighbors had lost by their superstition. 

Sab. Manual. 5 



82 THE SABBATH. 

But that very day the lightning struck his barn, 
and his Sabbath-day gains and his week-day gains 
were burnt together. His neighbors were not con- 
vinced that it was profitable or safe to work on the 
Sabbath. It v/as not in his power to convince them. 
They were more disposed than ever to confine their 
secular business to the six days which were made 
and given to men, and to which alone they have a 
right for that purpose. 

Though this is not a state of full retribution, yet 
Jehovah is " a God who judgeth in the earth,' ^ and 
sometimes, even here, he visits certain sins with his 
curse ; causing a fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation, which are to come hereafter. 
The intemperate man cannot compete with the 
temperate, nor, continuing such, can he escape the 
drunkard's grave. Notorious rebels against earthly 
parents will look in vain for those smiles of Provi- 
dence which fall upon filial virtue. " The eye that 
mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his 
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, 
and the young eagles shall eat it." 

And he that contemneth his Father in heaven, 
and openly trampleth on that institution which he 
hath appointed for giving efiicacy to his moral 
government among men, and diffusing the blessings 
of his parental love over the great human family, 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE . 83 

will find that, though his long-suffering is amazing, 
while his sun rises on the evil and the good, and his 
rain descends on the just and the unjust, judgment 
in due time lingereth not, and damnation slumber- 
eth not. In many cases before it comes there are 
indications of violated laws, by attendant retribu- 
tions. Every intemperate man is an evidence of 
this truth. 

A man of remarkable talents for business, and 
good opportunities for the acquisition of property, 
was confident that he could succeed, and keep what 
he gained, without regarding the Sabbath, or obey- 
ing the natural and moral lav/s of God. He had no 
idea of being confined in his efforts to six days in a 
week. He would take all the days, and employ 
them as he pleased. For a time he succeeded. 
Property flowed in upon him, and he grew increas- 
ingly confident that the idea of the necessity or 
utility of keeping the Sabbath, in order to perma- 
nent prosperity, was a delusion. The last year his 
property was sold for the benefit of his creditors by 
the sheriff; and he now seems farther than ever 
from being able to prove that ungodliness is profit- 
able even for this life. It sometimes, for a season, 
appears to superficial observers to be so. But the 
end corrects the mistake ; and sometimes the retri- 
bution which follows convinces the transgressor 



84 THE SABBATH. 

himself that it comes from God, and leads him to 
abandon his violations of the Sabbath. 

A man who ridiculed the idea that God makes a 
difference in his providence between those who yield 
visible obedience to his laws and those who do not, 
had been engaged, on a certain Sabbath, in gather- 
ing his crops into his barn. The next week he had 
occasion to take fire out into his field in order to 
burn some brush. He left it, as he supposed, safely, 
and went in to dinner. The wind took the fire and 
carried it into his barn-yard, which was filled with 
combustibles, and, before he was aware of it, the 
flames were bursting out of his barn. He arose in 
amazement, saw that all was lost, and fixing his 
eye on the curling flames, stood speechless. Then, 
pointing to the rising column of fire, he said, with 
solemn emphasis, " That is the finger of God !" 

Do you say, barns sometimes are burnt whose 
owners do not break the Sabbath ; buildings are 
struck with lightning while their owners are en- 
gaged in public worship ; steamboats take fire, and 
good men are burnt up in them ; or their property 
takes wings and flies away, as well as the property 
of notoriously wicked men ? That is sometimes the 
case. Calamities in this world come, to some ex- 
tent, upon all. But do they come as often, and to 
as great an extent, upon those who obey the natural 



DESECRATION UNPROFITABLE. 85 

and moral laws of God, as upon those who openly 
and habitually violate them ? Do the intemperate, 
the thief, and the murderer ordinarily secure and 
retain as many blessings in this world, as the tem- 
perate, the honest, and the pioQS ? 

Do notorious and habitual Sabbath-breakers, who 
devote the day to worldly business, travelling and 
amusement, acquire as much property, keep it as 
long, and as often transmit it, as a blessing, to their 
children, as those who conscientiously abstain from 
those practices, and regularly attend the public 
worship of God on the Lord's day ? Let the Bible 
and facts determine. Look at the men who, for the 
last forty years, have disregarded the Sabbath, and 
pursued their course of business or amusement 
seven days in a week ; look at their children and 
children's children, and compare them, as a body, 
with those who kept the Sabbath, and trained up 
their children in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord ; and let the convictions of every sober, candid 
and reflecting man determine. Aged men in great 
numbers, after extensive observation through a long 
course of years, have expressed a strong conviction 
that facts echo the declarations, " Six days shalt 
thou labor and do all thy work ; but remember the 
Sabbath day, and keep it holy." 

Any man may die suddenly by fire or water, 



86 THE SABBATH. 

lightning or disease. It is not a part of the Sav- 
iour's promise, even to his friends, that they shall 
not die suddenly. He evidently teaches that they 
may, and in view of it says, " Watch tlierefore, for 
in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man 
oometh." " And what I say unto you, I say unto 
all, Watch !" No man, whatever his character, 
can be sure that he will not, the next hour, be in 
eternity. That is a reason why no man should 
break the Sabbath, or in any way knowingly dis- 
obey God. He may die while doing it. That is a 
reason why every man should, at all times, be found 
doing the will of his Father in heaven, in depend- 
ence on his grace, for the purpose of promoting his 
glory and the good of m.en. '' Blessed is that ser- 
vant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so 
doing. If he shall come in the second watch, or in 
the third watch, blessed is that servant." While " the 
wicked is driven away in his wickedness," "the 
righteous hath hope in his death." However sud- 
denly, in whatever way he is removed from earth, 
though to live were Christ, through him that loved 
him and gave himself for him, to die shall he gain. 

Let each one then, in every condition, fear God and 
keep his commands ; for this is the duty, the right, the 
privilege, the wisdom, the safety, the excellence and 
the blessedness of man. 



No. U. 



** Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," 
is the declaration, not of the Bible only, but of Pro- 
vidence. Both utter the voice of nature, and pro- 
claim the will of nature's God. It v^as because the 
nature of man, as a physical and moral being, re- 
quired the Sabbath, that the day vi^as made for him. 
Without the observance of it he can never obtain 
the good of which he is capable, or avoid the evils 
which he has reason to fear. 

Some contend that the Sabbath was made for the 
Jews only. But this is in opposition to the testi- 
mony of the Infallible Witness, the Lord of the 
Sabbath. His decision is, Mark, 2 : 27, " The Sab- 
bath was made for man.'^ Man, as used in this 
connection, and in other places in the Bible, does 
not mean Jews only : it means the human family ; 
as when it is said, " Man that is born of a woman is 
of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth 



88 THE LORD^S DAY. 

as a flower, and is cut down." It does not mean 
Jews only : it means the human race. When it is 
said, " Man lieth down, and riseth not again till the 
heavens be no more," does it mean Jews only ? 
No. It means man, to whom it is once appointed 
to die. And the Sabbath was made for man — that 
man, to whom it is appointed once to die, and after 
that the judgment. And it was designed, and is 
adapted to aid him in preparing for those inevitable 
and momentous events ; as well as to cheer and ani- 
mate, sustain and comfort him, as he goes forward 
to meet them. It comes by Divine appointment, to 
ease him of his burdens and soothe him in his sor- 
rows, pour light on his darkness, and point him up- 
ward to that rest which remaineth for the people of 
God ; so that for him to live may be Christ, and to 
die may be gain. Whenever, and wherever it is 
kept by any of the human family, in accordance 
with the Divine will, it has, through grace, that 
benign effect. 

The word sabbath means rest — '' The rest was 
made for man." The rest spoken of by our Saviour 
is a day of weekly rest from secular business and 
cares, for the purpose of devoting it especially to 
the worship of God and the promotion of the spiritual 
■good of men. In order to this, and with reference 
to his benefit here, as well as hereafter, it was da- 



SABBATH MADE FOR MAN. 89 

signed to give him one day in seven, in addition to 
the nights, as a season of rest from physical toil, in 
order to promote his health and comfort, his longe- 
vity, and his usefulness to himself and others. 

In this respect, it is not an original and primary 
institution, standing out alone ; but it is based upon 
another, that lies back of it, viz., " Six days shalt 
thou labor, and do all thy work.'^ This was the 
original law for man ; and to it, in order to make it 
known and give it sanction, Jehovah himself con- 
formed in the making of the world. Hence the 
reason why the first great exhibition of himself in 
the beginning, and that which meets us at the open- 
ing of revelation, is that of " Divinity in action;" 
working " six days," and " six days " only. 

Hence the reason, also, why, having wrought 
" six days," the next great exhibition of himself, 
recorded for the instruction of all ages, is that of 
"Divinity in repose," resting one day, after six 
days of labor. And hence, too, the reason why he 
sanctified the day, or set it apart from other days, 
for a special and peculiar purpose, to be employed, 
not as a day for worldly business and cares, but as 
a day of rest. The nature of man and beast would 
need it, the glory of their Maker would require it, 
and the good of the universe would be promoted by 
it. Hence the reason, also, why he blessed the day, 



90 THE lord's day. 

for the purposes, and for those only, for which it 
was made — for which it was in all ages to be occu- 
pied — to which it had, by his great example, been 
thus solemnly devoted. 

To these great facts he himself appeals, as reasons 
why men should keep the Sabbath. " Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; but the sev- 
enth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it 
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 
thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
within thy gates;" — that is, under thy control — 
^' for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the sev- 
enth day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day '' — or the day of rest — " and hallowed it." Their 
observance of it would, in all ages, be a sign that they 
acknowledged him as their God ; and it would secure 
his acknowledgment of them as his people. Hence 
the command, Ezek. 20 : 20, " Hallow my Sab- 
baths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, 
that ye may know that I am Jehovah, your God." 

Some have supposed that by this arrangement a 
definite period of duration was made holy in iiself, 
and that all persons must keep that identical period 
or they could not acceptably obey the command. 
But this is a mistake, which arises from looking at 



ORIGINAL LAW OF CREATION. 91 

the surface of things, or regarding their sound and 
appearance, and is a striking illustration of the law 
maxim, " Hcsrei in lit era, hceret in cortice," 

The primary and essential idea in the numbers 
*^six" and "seven," as used in the command, is 
that of proportion. It marks the number of days to 
be devoted to secular concerns, compared with those 
to be devoted to rest and spiritual duties. " Six 
days shalt thou labor;" and the next day, which 
of course, reckoning from the first working day, is 
*' the seventh," thou shalt rest and not do any work. 
Men who call their first working day the second day 
of the week, and who, on the seventh day from that, 
keep the Christian Sabbath, do as really comply 
with the spirit and the letter of the fourth com- 
mandment, as men did who of old kept the Jewish 
Sabbath. " Six days they labor, and in them do all 
their work ; and the seventh day they rest, and do 
not do any work ;" and that is the spirit as well as 
the letter of the command. It is based on the ar- 
rangement made for man, whose nature requires, 
after working with suitable diligence six days, that 
the seventh should be devoted to rest and to spiritual 
duties. 

That it is not chronological or numerical identity 
that is referred to, or is the primary and essential 
idea in the Sabbath law, is evident from the fact 



92 THE lord's day. 

that every spot on the earth is constantly changing 
its position with regard to the sun 3 and that day 
and night, the first day and the seventh, in different 
places and to different people, come at totally dif- 
ferent times. They may be half a day, or even a 
whole day apart ; and yet each may obey the law. 
Six days they may labor, and in them do all their 
work. The seventh, whether they call it seventh 
in their week or not, they may rest, and both keep 
the Sabbath, according to the commandment. 

The Christians in New Holland, or in China, keep 
the Sabbath at a very different time from the Chris- 
tians in America. And even should a people lose 
the original reckoning of time, as some people may 
have done, still they need not, and, if pious and 
enlightened, would not live without a Sabbath, nor 
without obeying the Sabbath law. Six days they 
would labor, and in them do all their work ; and the 
seventh day they would rest, and worship God, and 
would thus acceptably keep the Sabbath. 

No identical period of duration is, in itself, in- 
trinsically holy ; but one-seventh is set apart by 
Tehovah for sacred purposes. On that account it 
is called holy ; as the temple and the sacred vessels 
were called holy, because devoted to holy purposes. 

Two pious colonies start from the same place : 
one goes east and the other west. They continue 



NOT CHRONOLOGICAL IDENTITY. 93 

their journey till they meet on the same parallel of 
longitude, and in different latitudes : they settle for 
life. They are now a whole day apart ; and, should 
they continue till they should reach the longitude 
from which they started, they would be two days 
apart. And yet each might all the way, though at 
different times, be obeying the spirit and the let- 
ter of the fourth commandment, and in a manner 
equally acceptable to God. 

When the English sailors first visited Pitcairn's 
Island they arrived on Saturday, and found the 
islanders, with John Adams at their head, keeping 
the Christian Sabbath. They had gone to the island 
in different directions. The consequence was, that 
the Saturday of the one was the Sabbath of the 
other, and the Sabbath of the one was the Monday 
of the other. And yet each company might con- 
tinue to keep the Sabbath according to its own reck- 
oning, if they were not to live together, and might 
do it with equal acceptance, though if they were to 
live together, it might be their duty to change ; and 
either company might change its days of labor and 
of rest, so as to conform to the other ; and which- 
ever party should change, they would continue, as 
they had done before, to conform to the spirit and to 
the letter of the Sabbath law. 

Is it, then, of no importance which of the six days 



94 THE lord's DA.Y. 

in a week men occupy for labor and secular con- 
cerns, and which for rest and for spiritual duties ? 
May each select his own time, without regard to the 
Divine sanction or the general good ? No. In the 
first place, there should be agreement as to the time, 
that each may not incommode, but may assist the 
others in the enjoyment of the privileges and the 
performance of the duties of the Sabbath. And 
that there may be agreement, each should inquire 
with regard to the will of God, and observe the day 
which is indicated in his word and by his provi- 
dence as suited to the end for which the Sabbath 
was appointed. 

When the great object was to celebrate the mani- 
festation of Jehovah as Creator, it was suitable that 
the day selected should be that on which he finished 
the work of creation, and on which he rested him- 
self, and thus, as Lord of creation, gave to the ob- 
servance of the Sabbath the sanction of his example. 

Should the time ever come when he should make 
greater and more glorious displays of himself than 
were made in the physical creation, reason would 
seem to require — we should naturally expect — that 
those displays would be celebrated, not indeed to 
the exclusion of the other, but in addition to the 
other, and in proportion to their magnitude and 
importance. 



THE PRINCIPLE AS TO TIME. 95 

Has he ever made any displays of himself which 
he represents as more glorious than those which 
were made in the physical creation 1 The heavens 
declare his glory, and the firmament showeth his 
handy work. These are, indeed, bright manifesta- 
tions of glory^ and are worthy of a weekly celebra- 
tion. Is there anything which exceeds in glory ? 
which shows not only wisdom, power, and goodness, 
but in addition, unsearcJiahle riches of kindness, 
compassion and grace ? which displays justice and 
mercy meeting together, righteousness and peace 
embracing each other ? What saith the prophet, 
the man inspired of God to speak for him in this 
matter ? " Behold ! I create new heavens and a 
new earth ; the former shall not be remembered nor 
come into mind. There shall come forth a Rod out 
of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of 
his roots.'' " Righteousness shall be the girdle of 
his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb ; the leopard 
shall lie down with the kid ; the calf, and the young 
lion, and the fatling, together ; and a little child 
shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed ; 
their young ones shall lie down together. The 
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
the weaned child put his hand on the cockatrice's 
den ; and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my 



96 THE lord's day. 

holy mountain : for the earth shall he full of the 
knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea^ 

What is that knowledge of Jehovah which is to 
work such wonders ? Is it the knowledge of him 
as Creator merely ; stretching out the heavens as a 
curtain, and the earth as a tent to dwell in ? Is it 
that in six days he created heaven and earth, the 
sea, and all that in them is ; and that men from 
week to week have celebrated these displays of his 
glory ? Are these the principal displays which are 
to be celebrated, when men shall beat their swords 
into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning- 
hooks ? when the lion and the lamb shall lie down 
together, and there be nothing to hurt or destroy ? 
What saith Jehovah himself in this matter ? 

" Be ye glad, and rejoice forever in that which 
I create,^^ And what is it? The physical crea- 
tion ? " Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and 
her people a joy, I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and 
joy in my people ; and the voice of weeping shall 
no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 
No more shall there be an infant of days, or an old 
man that hath not fulfilled his days;" for he that 
dieth at a hundred years, shall die a boy ; and tlie 
sinner that dieth at a hundred years, shall be deemed 
accursed. For as the days of a tree shall be the 
days of my people ; and they shall wear out the 



THE NEW CREATION. 97 

works of their own hands. " The wolf and the lamb 
shall feed together ; and they shall not hurt nor de- 
stroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah.^' 

Such are the glories which are to be celebrated, 
when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters fill the seas — the glories of Je- 
hovah, not as Creator merely or principally, but the 
glories of Jehovah as Redeemer. No sooner does 
he appear as God manifest in the flesh, than sud- 
denly there is with the angels a multitude of the 
heavenly hosts, crying, " Glory to God in the 
HIGHEST.^' Why? Because that in six days he 
created the heavens and the earth ? No ; not that 
merely, or principally ; but because there is " peace 
on earth, good-will to men," through those won- 
drous manifestations into which angels desire to 
look, of a JTJST God, and yet a Saviour. 

The first creation made men creatures, and placed 
them where, by their voluntary rebellion, they be- 
came sinners, and exposed to endless death ; the 
second creation makes them saints, and prepares 
them to be kings and priests unto God, and to reign 
with him for ever and ever. 

No wonder the inspired penman, in view of it, 
broke out, " Open to me the gates of righteousness ; 
I will go into them and praise Jehovah ; this gate 
of Jehovah into which the righteous shall enter. I 



98 THE lord's day. 

will praise thee ; for thou hast heard me, and art 
become my salvationJ\ And how was this done ? 
" Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a Stone, 
a tried Stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foun- 
dation. He that believeth on him shall not be con- 
founded. This is the Stone which was set al 
nought of those builders, and which is become the 
head-stone of the corner. This is Jehovah's doing 
preeminently, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 
This is the work which excites their highest admira- 
tion, and calls forth their loudest praises. And this 
is the day which the Lord hath made, on which 
especially to celebrate this glory ; and we will re- 
joice and be glad in it. 

O give thanks unto Jehovah, for he is good, for 
his mercy endureth for ever. Who shall not fear 
thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name ! for thou only 
art Jioly, for all nations shall come and worship be- 
fore thee Blessed he the God and Father of onr 
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath hlessed us ivith all 
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; in 
whom ive have redemption through his Hood, the for- 
giveness of sins according to the riches of grace, 
wherein he hath abounded toward us; that in the 
dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather 
together in one all things in Christ, both which are 
in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. 



THE NEW CREATION. 99 

This was peculiarly to be the theme for Christian 
celebration, from week to week, on the Christian 
Sabbath. 

Six times in the New Testament are the passages 
concerning this foundation laid in Zion applied, by 
inspired men, to Jesus Christ. He was the Stone 
set at nought of those builders, and by his resurrec- 
tion, the demonstration of his Messiahship, he be- 
came the head-stone of the corner. That was the 
day which the Lord had made, in which sinners 
who should believe on him would rejoice and be 
glad. And they would express their joy in public 
and devout thanksgiving. Hence, when this is ac- 
complished, we should not be surprised should they 
say, " O come, let us sing unto the Lord, and let 
us make a joyful noise unto the Rock of our salva- 
tion;" nor if we hear them actually singing, 

" This is the day the Lord hath made ; 
He calls the hours his own ; 
Let heaven rejoice, let earth be glad. 
And praise surround the throne. 



' To-day he rose, and left the dead. 

And Satan's empire fell ; 
To-day the saints his triumphs spread. 
And all his wonders tell. 



100 

" Hosanna in the highest strains 
The church on earth can raise ; 
The highest heavens, in which he reigns, 
Shall give him nobler praise." 

Such have actually been the facts. Ever since 
He who had power to lay down his life, showed that 
he had power to take it again, by bursting the bands 
of death, and rising triumphant, leading captivity 
captive, his disciples have assembled on the day of 
his resurrection to worship and adore. For eigh- 
teen hundred years has been sung, by the church 
on earth, a new song, and one which the physical 
creation merely could never inspire. 

" Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast 
redeemed us unto God by thy blood, out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.'^ This 
is now their practice ; and such it will continue to 
be, till this song of the church on earth is swallowed 
up in the song of the church in heaven. And 

" Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, 
They'll sing his power to save. 
When these poor, lisping, stammering tongues 
Lie silent in the grave." 

God has blessed this practice in every age, and 
made it instrumental in extending the boundaries 



PRACTICE OF THE REDEEMER. 101 

of his kingdom, multipl3^ing the number of his sub- 
jects, and preparing them to dwell in his presence, 
behold his glory, and rejoice in his love. This 
number is now increasing, and they will continue 
to increase, till they shall become a multitude which 
no man can number, out of every nation, and kin- 
dred, and people, and tongue. 

Have they done right in this ? And are men 
now doing right in keeping the day of the resurrec- 
tion of the Saviour, and the finishing of his atoning 
work for their salvation, as the Christian Sahhath ? — 
the day when the business of this world shall be 
suspended, and they not forsake the assembling of 
themselves together to worship and adore Jehovah, 
not as their Creator merely, but as their Redeemer 
and Sanctifier — and in view of these new heavens 
and new earth, which he creates and makes so 
much more glorious, that the former, in comparison, 
are hardly remembered or come into mind ? 

Have they divine warrant for this practice ? Has 
it been sanctioned by the Lord of the Sabbath ? 
What are the facts ? 

When he became incarnate for the purpose of 
working out for men this great salvation, he was 
made under the law, which was written by God on 
tables of stone, and proclaimed by Moses to the peo- 
ple. It became him, in that condition, to fulfil all 



102 TPiE lord's day. 

righteousness, and to yield obedience both to the 
moral and to the ceremonial laws. He kept the 
weekly Sabbath, on the day which, according to 
their reckoning, was the seventh; and his custom 
was, to go with others into the synagogue for wor- 
ship. Hence we find him on one of those occasions 
reading, in the hearing of the people, a part of the 
prophecy of Isaiah concerning himself; and then 
as a public teacher, giving them instruction with 
regard to his character and kingdom. This con- 
tinued to be his custom till his death, when was 
fulfilled in him the prophecy of the Psalmist, and 
he was as a stone set at nought of those builders. 
But after his resurrection, when, according to the 
same prophec}^, he became the Head-stone of the 
corner, we Sliear no more of Ids going into the syna- 
gogue, or any other 'place for public worship, on that 
seventh day, (the day in which he had lain in the 
grave,) or even of his meeting with his disciples. 
It had been to them a day of sadness, of darkness, 
and gloom ; while, although he had all power, he 
had suffered his body to remain a lifeless corpse in 
the tomb. But on the morning of the first day of 
the week the darkness fled away. The angel of the 
Lord descended and rolled back the stone. His 
countenance was like lightning, and his raiment 
white as snow. For fear of him, the keepers, who 



PRACTICE OF THE REDEEMER. 103 

had been stationed to prevent his rising or being 
stolen away, became as dead men. The women 
who assembled to anoint his body, are told that he 
is not there, that he has risen, and if they go into 
Galilee, they shall see him. But hardly have they 
turned to hear the tidings, when he meets them, 
saying, " All hail !" And they hold him by the 
feet, and worship him. 

Thus opened the day which the Lord had made 
for this glorious consummation, and on which the 
future millions of his people, in coming generations, 
would rejoice and be glad. The news was soon 
spread that he was risen, and his disciples were at 
the sepulchre, but he v/as not there. As he died 
for their sins according to the Scriptures, so he rose 
again for their justification according to the Scrip- 
tures. And four times on that day did he appear to 
his disciples. The last time is recorded by the Holy 
Ghost with special particularity. " The same day, 
at evening, being the first day of the week, when 
the doors were shut where the disciples were assem- 
bled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in 
the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace ee 
UNTO YOU. And when he had so said, he shewed 
them his hands and his side. Then were the disci- 
ples glad when they saw the Lord.^^ It was the 
day which he had made, and they began to rejoice 



104 THE lord's day. 

and be glad in it. " Then said Jesus unto them 
again, Peace he unto you. As my Father hath sent 
me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, 
he breathed on them, and said. Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
they are retained." Thus, according to his promise, 
though, on account of his departure, their hearts, on 
the Sabbath of the old creation, had been sorrowful, 
yet now, on this day which commemorates the new, 
he meets them again, and their sorrow is turned into 
joy, and their joy no man takes from them. For he 
himself would be with them. And even where 
two or three only should be gathered together in his 
name, there would he be, in the midst of them, to 
bless them. 

Thus, on that first day, he not only met with his 
disciples — a thing which we have no account of his 
doing, after his resurrection, on that seventh day — 
but he blessed them in their meeting, saying, " Peace 
he unto you;^^ — evidently approving of what they 
were doing. And he appointed them as his ambas- 
sadors, to go forth in his name, and to establish the 
new dispensation ; and he gave them the Holy Ghost 
to fit them for their work ; thus fulfilling towards 
them the great New Testament promise, and mark- 
ing, in a strong and peculiar manner in his pro- 



PRACTICE OF THE KEDEEMER. 105 

vidence and by his grace, that first day of the 
week. 

The resurrection of the Redeemer, the assem- 
bling of his disciples, the manifestation of himself 
to them, the approval which he bestows upon them, 
the commission which he gives them, the Holy 
Ghost which he imparts to them — all give to this 
day, in the view of his disciples, a grand peculiarity, 
and strongly mark it for their future guidance. 
And, as he has given them the Holy Ghost to teach 
them, and to bring all things to their remembrance 
whatsoever he has said unto them, and to lead them 
into all truth as far as is needful to declare authori- 
tatively his will, and to adopt those practices and 
establish those institutions which he will approve — 
if it is his will that his followers should observe the 
first day of the week for public worship, we may 
expect when the day comes to find those disciples 
together again. And what is the fact ? We have 
no account of any meeting during the week. But 
after eight days — that is, according to the Jewish 
mode of reckoning, on the first day of the week — 
the disciples are assembled ; and Thomas, who was 
not there before, is now with them. And then, too, 
though the doors were shut, came Jesus, and stood 
again in the midst of them. And again he said, 
" Peace be unto you.'^ What stronger marks 



106 THE lord's day. 

of his approbation could he give them ? or of his 
sanction of the course which they were taking ? 

And to Thomas, who had not before seen hun 
after his resurrection, and who had declared that 
except he should see in his hands the print of the 
nails, and put his finger into the print of the nails, 
and thrust his hand into his side, he would not be- 
lieve, he said, " Reach hither thy finger, and behold 
my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it 
into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." 
And Thomas said unto him, " My Lord and my 
God.'^ And he said, " Thomas, because thou hast 
seen me, thou hast believed ; blessed are they that 
have not seen me, and yet have believed." And 
many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his 
disciples, which are not recorded. But these are 
recorded that men might believe, and that in be- 
lieving they might have life through his name. 

Thus ended the second first day of the week. In 
what way could it end more suitably, if that was, 
in future, to be the day when his disciples were to 
assemble together in his name, and he was to meet 
v/ith them and grant them his blessing ? And what 
more suitable than for the Holy Ghost to record 
with such minuteness those meetings of Christ and 
his disciples, and what took place at them, while he 
says not a word of his ever meeting with them, or 



GIFT OF THE SPIRIT. 107 

even of their meeting together on that seventh day, 
during all the time of his continuance with them on 
earth ? They were recorded, and with such mi- 
nuteness, for our instruction, that we might have all 
needed evidence of his will in this matter, and that 
in following him and his disciples, whom he inspired 
by the Holy Ghost, we do not err. 

All things, thus far, seem to correspond with the 
idea awakened by prophecy, and realized in fact, 
that this — and not the old Sabbath commemorating 
the physical creation, when he lay in the grave, 
and his disciples in sadness were scattered, each 
one to his own — was, in future, to be the day for 
their religious rejoicing and praise : the day when 
they were to assemble and hear of God in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing 
their trespasses unto them, but forgiving iniquity, 
transgression and sin. The old state of things was 
not, comparatively, to be remembered, or to come 
into mind. The new creation was to occupy its 
place ; and the church and her ministers, her ordi- 
nances, her Sabbaths, and her worship, were all to 
be organized with reference, not principally to cre- 
ation, but to redemption ] and to the time when, not 
Jews only, or Gentiles, but all flesh should come to 
worsnip before Jehovah, and the kingdom and do- 
minion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the 



108 THE lord's day. 

whole heaven, should be given to the people of the 
saints of the Most High God, whose kingdom is an 
everlasting kingdom, and of whose dominion there 
is no end. 

But although, in meeting together on that first 
day, they were blessed by their Saviour, and their 
hearts were replenished by his Spirit, yet they had 
not received all things that were needful to furnish 
them thoroughly to disciple all nations, and teach 
them to observe all things whatsoever he had com- 
manded them. For this they must be miraculously 
taught a knowledge of the foreign languages in 
which they would be called to preach and to teach 
in his name ; for this they must wait at Jerusalem ; 
and for this they did wait, not merely till the seventh 
day, as might have been expected if that were in 
future to be the day for the special manifestations 
of his grace, but till the first day, the day of his 
resurrection and of the gift of his Spirit. 

Then suddenly there was a sound from heaven 
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the 
house where they were sitting. And there ap- 
peared cloven tongues like as of fire, and sat upon 
each of them ; and they were filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as 
the Spirit gave them utterance. Parthians, Medes, 
Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cap- 



DAY OF PENTECOST. 109 

padocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pam- 
phylia, in Egypt, in parts of L^^ya about Cyrene, 
and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes 
and Arabians, — all heard them speak, each in his 
own tongue, the wonderful works of God. 

And what were these wonderful works which on 
that great day of divine manifestation they pro- 
claimed ? Were they the wonders of creation ? 
No, the wonders of redemption ; the death and 
resurrection of the Saviour; his exaltation to the 
right hand of God ; the gift of the Holy Ghost in ful- 
filment of prophecy — " I will pour out my Spirit 
upon all flesh : your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy ; your young men shall see visions, and 
your old men shall dream dreams. And on my ser- 
vants, and on my hand-maidens, I will pour out my 
Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will shew 
wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth 
beneath ; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The 
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into 
blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord 
come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
shall call on the name of the Lord, shall he saved.^^ 

These were the wonderful works of God which 
they proclaimed : salvation through a crucified, 
risen, glorified Redeemer. And what day could be 
more suited to that than the day which God selected 



110 THE lord's day. 

for that purpose ? But did he accompany their 
preaching on that day with his Spirit, and render it 
efficacious to the salvation of men ? Were those, 
who had been born of the flesh, on that day born of 
the Spirit, and induced to live henceforward, not 
unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them, 
and rose again ? What saith the Spirit ? They 
were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, 
and to the rest of the apostles, " Men and brethren, 
what shall we do?" — that is, to be saved. He said 
unto them, *^ Repent, and be baptized every one of 
you in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remis- 
sion of sins." They did so ; and the same day 
were added unto them three thousand souls. So 
mightily, on that first day of the week, grew the 
word of the Lord and prevailed. 

What was afterwards the conduct of the apostles 
in this matter ? They had been commissioned by 
the Saviour, and were now furnished by the Holy 
Ghost, to go into all the world, and preach the Gos- 
pel to every creature. They went out and preached 
according to his direction. And as men embraced 
the Gospel, and were gathered into churches, they 
commanded them not to forsake the assembling of 
themselves together to worship God, to sing his 
praises, to hear his Gospel, to celebrate the Lord's 
supper, and to contribute of their substance for 



THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. Ill 

the benefit of the poor. They did assemble from 
week to week for these purposes. On what day 
did they do this ? On the seventh day, or on the 
first of the Jewish week? Mosheim says, vol. 1, 
p. 45, "In the first century, all Christians were 
unanimous in setting apart the^r^^ day of the week, 
on which the Saviour arose from the dead, for the 
solemn celebration of public worship. This pious 
custom, which was derived from the church in Jeru- 
salem, was founded upon the express appointment of 
the apostles, who themselves consecrated' that day to 
the same sacred purpose ; and it was observed uni- 
versally, as appears from the united testimony of 
the most credible writers. 

" The seventh day was also observed as a festival, 
not hy Christians in general, but by such churches 
as were principally composed of Jewish converts." 

That the Jews, the enemies and rejectors of the 
Messiah and his salvation, continued to observe the 
seventh day as the Sabbath, is evident. And to 
some extent, some of them, and such as followed 
them, continued to do this after they had embraced 
the Christian religion. But at the same time even 
they observed the first day of the week for Christian 
worship. Hence Theodoret, speaking of the Ebion- 
ites, a party of Judaizing Christians, says, " They 
keep the Sabbath according to the Jewish law, and 



112 THE lord's day. 

sanctify the Lord's day in like manner as we do,'^ 
Hseret. Fab. 2. 1. "This," says Professor Stuart, 
" gives a good historical view of the state of things 
in the early ages of the church. The zealots for 
the law wished the Jewish Sahhath to be observed 
as well as the Lord's day ; for about tJie latter there 
appears never to have heen any question among any 
class of Christians, so far as I have heen able to dis- 
cover. The early Christians, one and all of them, 
held the first day of the week to be sacred,'^ 

And whence did they derive that practice, but 
from the apostles themselves ? And as they had 
been appointed by God, and replenished with the 
Spirit for the express purpose of making known his 
will in this matter, as well as other things pertain- 
ing to the establishment and welfare of the Christian 
church, we have in this the sanction of God himself. 
In observing the first day of the week for religious 
worship, they followed no cunningly-devised fable, 
but the known will of their Lord ; and that practice 
has been continued in the Christian world from that 
day to this. So general was it, even before the 
death of the apostles, and under their direction, that 
the day, by way of convenience, was called the 
Lord's day ; that is, the day especially devoted to 
his worship. 

As the supper which commemorated his death 



THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 113 

was called " the Lord's supper," so the day of his 
resurrection, on which they met for his worship, 
was called '' the Lord's day." And so universal 
was the habit of observing it, that it was, without ex- 
planation, evidently understood at that time through- 
out the Christian world. 

Hence the Apostle John says, "I was in the 
Spirit on the Lord's day." What day that was, all 
Christians knew. It was the day of his resurrec- 
tion, when they assembled to worship their Lord. 

Hence Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, A. D. 101, 
only about half a dozen ►years after the death of the 
apostle, speaks of the Lord's day familiarly and 
without explanations, as if everybody understood 
it. And he gives this title to the first day of the 
week exactly after the manner of the apostle him- 
self. " Let us (Christians) no more sabbatize," he 
says — that is, keep the seventh day, as the Jews 
did — "but let us keep the Lord's day." "Let 
every one that loves Christ keep holy the Lord's 
DAY, the queen of days, the resurrection day, the 
highest of all days." 

This shows what was meant by the Lord's day ; 
it was the resurrection day ; and also why it was 
called the Lord's day. It was the day when Chris- 
tians assembled for public worship, and which they 
kept holy as the Christian Sabbath. 

Sab. Manual. Q 



114 THE LORD S DAY. 

Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, about A. D. 162, 
says, " Both custom and reason challenge from us 
that we should honor the Lord^s day, seeing on that 
day it was that our Lord Jesus completed his resur. 
rection from the dead." 

Hence Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, a disciple of 
Polycarp, who had been the companion of the apos- 
tles, A. D. 167, says that the Lord's day was the 
Christian Sabbath. His words are, " On the 
Lord's day every one of us Christians keeps the Sah- 
hath, meditating on the law and rejoicing in the 
works of God." 

And Dionysius, who lived in the time of Irenseus, 
in writing to the Romans, A. D. 170, says, "We 
celebrate the Lord's day;" and he informed them 
that the epistles of Clement, their late bishop, were 
read in the church at Corinth, " while they were 
keeping the Lord's day holy." 

Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 192, says, "A 
Christian, according to the command of the Gospel, 
observes the Lord^s day, thereby glorifying the 
resurrection of the Lord." And again he says, 
"The Lord's day is the eighth day;" that is, ac- 
cording to the Jewish reckoning, on the day that 
came next after the Jewish Sabbath, viz. the first 
day of the week. 

Tertullian, about the same time, says, " The 



THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. 115 

Lord's day is the holy day of the Christian church." 
" We have nothing to do with the Sabbath," — that 
is, the Jewish Sabbath. '' The Lord's day is the 
Christian's solemnity." 

Such are the testimonies of men who knew, con- 
cerning the meaning of the Lord's day, the reason 
why it received that designation, and the manner in 
which Christians, commencing with the apostles and 
continuing for the next hundred years after their 
death, viev/ed and treated that day. It was to them 
a holy day ; a day for religious worship ; the Chris- 
tian's Sabbath. And it was with reference to that, 
that the apostles directed them not to forsake the 
assembling of themselves together as the manner of 
some was, but to exhort one another, and so much 
the more as they should see the day of their salva- 
tion approaching. And when the whole church 
were come together in one place, he tells them what 
to do, and the manner in which they should do it. 
" Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of 
that bread, and drink of that cup," which showed 
forth the Lord's death. That was one part of their 
business on the Lord's day, to partake of the Lord's 
supper. They were also to speak and to hear 
according to the oracles of God ; that God in all 
things might be glorified through Jesus Christ. 
And they were to teach and admonish one another 



116 Tiffi lord's day. 

in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing 
with grace in their hearts unto the Lord. In short, 
they were to v/orship God, learn his will, sing his 
praises, pray to him for the blessings which they 
needed, and commemorate the dying love of Him, 
who, though he was rich, yet for their sakes became 
poor, that they through his poverty might be rich ; 
and to manifest his spirit, by contributing on those 
occasions as God should have blessed them, for the 
relief of their poor and suffering brethren. And 
such, we learn, not only from men who were the 
companions and immediate successors of the apos- 
ties, but from the apostles themselves, was the fact. 
Hence Paul says to the Corinthians, " Now con- 
cerning the collection for the saints, as I have given 
order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye : 
upon the first day of the week let every one of 
you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered 
him, that there be no gatherings when I come." 
This laying by in store was not laying by at home, 
for that would not prevent gatherings when he 
should come. This could be done only by putting 
it into one common stock, that it might be ready on 
his arrival. Why was that to be done regularly 
on the first day of each week ? Because that was 
the time when they regularly assembled together. 
And it was suitable, when they were assembled to 



THE APOSTLE PAUL. 117 

praise God for his goodness and mercy to them, that 
they should manifest something of the same spirit, 
by showing mercy and doing good to others. It 
would be a means of cultivating a merciful spirit in 
themselves, and a good way to manifest it to their 
fellow men. It was the convenient and proper time 
for that object. 

Hence also at Troas, on the first day of the week, 
when the disciples came together, as their custom 
was, to break bread ; Paul having tarried, it would 
seem, a number of days for that purpose, preached 
unto them, ready to depart on the morrow. And it 
being the only opportunity he might have, he con- 
tinued his speech till midnight. After that, he ad- 
ministered to them the Lord^s supper, and departed 
and went to Mitylene. 

Thus it appears that they went according to theii 
commission, from city to city, preaching the Gospel 
as they had opportunity, and teaching men to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever Christ had commanded 
them. And as churches were gathered, they, ac- 
cording to their directions, assembled together for 
the purpose of hearing the Gospel, for the breaking 
of bread, and for prayer ; for the singing of praises, 
and making contributions for the relief of the des- 
titute. And in the doing of this they continued 
steadfastly in the apostles^ doctrine. And as they 



118 THE lord's day. 

were the accredited ambassadors of Christ, inspired 
by him to make known infallibly his will, and estab- 
lish things according to it in the New Testament 
church, we have in this the sanction of Christ him' 
self. And this practice, commencing with the apos- 
tles, continued not only while they lived, but after 
they were dead ; and extended not only to one, or 
to a few, but to all Christian countries. Hence the 
testimony of Ignatius and Irenseus, Dionysius and 
Theophilus, Clement and Tertullian, and others 
which we have noticed, and all within one hundred 
years of the death of the Apostle John, and some of 
them living in the days of the apostles, who must 
have known, with infallible certainty, what were 
their teaching and practice in this matter. 

Hence too, Barnabas, who, if not a companion of 
the apostles, lived in the apostolic age, says, "We" 
(Christians) " keep the eighth day," — that is, the 
first day of the week — " as a joyful holy-day, on 
which day, also, Jesus arose from the dead." 

Pliny the younger, who was governor of Bi- 
thynia, A. D. 107, not ten years after the death of 
the Apostle John, wrote to the Emperor Trajan, 
and gave him a statement of the practices of the 
Christians, as he had received it from some who, on 
account of the extremity of their sufferings under 
persecution, hg-d apostatized from their religion. 



THE FIRST CHKISTIANS. 119 

He says, " They " — the Christians — " were accus- 
tomed on a stated day to meet before daylight, and 
to repeat hymns to Christ as to a God, and to bind 
themselves by a sacred obligation not to commit 
any wickedness, but, on the contrary, to abstain 
from thefts, robberies, and adulteries; also, not to 
violate their promise or deny a pledge : after which 
it was their custom to separate, and meet again at 
a promiscuous and harmless meal " — that is, for the 
celebration of the Lord's supper. 

Here then we have, almost immediately after the 
death of the last apostle, the Christians in Bithynia 
meeting on a stated day for public worship, for en- 
tering into solem.n covenant with God and with one 
another, and for commemorating the sacrament of 
the supper, as they did at Corinth in the days of 
Paul, when he commanded them, if they wished 
to eat an ordinary meal for the satisfying of hunger, 
to do it at home, where for that purpose they had 
houses to eat and to drink in ; and that v/hen they 
came together to eat the Lord's supper, they should 
tarry one for another, that they come not together 
to condemnation. It seems they came together — - 
that this was their custom, and on a stated day. 
And v/hat was that stated day ? We have seen, 
both from the New Testament and from the Chris- 
tian fathers who lived in the second century, and in 



120 THE lord's day. 

the first after the death of the apostles, that it was 
the day of the resurrection ; the first day of the 
week, the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath. 

Hence the fact that their persecutors, when they 
wished to know whether men were Christians, were 
accustomed to put to them this question, viz., " Do- 
minicum servasti V^ — " Hast thou kept the Lord's 
day ?" If they had, they were Christians. This 
was the badge of their Christianity, in distinction 
from Jews and pagans. And if they said they had, 
and would not recant, they must be put to death. 
And what, when they continued steadfast, was their 
answer ? " Cliristianus sum ; intermittere non jpos- 
sum/^ — 'I am a Christian; I cannot omit it.' — It is 
a badge of my religion, and the man who assumes 
it must of course keep the Lord's day, because it is 
the will of his Lord ; and should he abandon it, he 
would be an apostate from his religion." 

It was also then, as it is now, a standing evi- 
dence of his resurrection, the demonstration of his 
Messiahship, a testimony of their faith in him as 
their Redeemer, an emblem of the rest that remained 
for them, and a season of special preparation, that 
they might be partakers of its joys. It was the day 
when he manifested himself to them, even two or 
three of them, who were gathered together in his 
name, and took up his abode with them, and they 



THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. 121 

commemorated that love to them which was stronger 
than death, which many waters could not quench, 
and which floods could not drown. And so it has 
been ever since. " Christiani fueruni ; inter milter e 
non potuerunt.^^ 

Justin Martyr, in his " Apology for the Chris* 
tians, " addressed to the Emperor Antoninus, A. D. 
147, gives the following account of the practice of 
Christians in his day : " On the day called '^ — that 
is by the Romans — " Sunday, there is a meeting in 
one place of all the Christians that live either in the 
towns or in the country ; and the memoirs of the 
apostles," — that is, their memoirs, as is supposed, of 
the Saviour, in the four Gospels — " or the writings 
of the prophets, are read to them as long as is suit- 
able. When the reader stops, the president pro- 
nounces an admonition, and exhorts to an imitation 
of those noble examples ; after which we arise and 
begin to pray." Apol. i. chap. 67. He then de- 
scribes the celebration of the Lord's supper, and the 
collection which was taken up for the poor; and 
closes by mentioning several reasons, why they 
selected that day of the week for public worship. 
One of them is, that it was the day on which Jesu« 
Christ our Saviour arose from the dead. Thus they 
continued evidently to follow substantially the same 
course which was adopted under the eye and by the 



122 THE lord's day. 

direction of the apostles, as shown by their acts and 
epistles. 

Ambrose, bishop of Milan, says, " The Lord's 
day is sacred, or consecrated, by the resurrection 
of Christ." 

Augustine says, " The Lord's day was by the 
resurrection declared to Christians ; and from that 
very time it began to be celebrated as the Christian 
festival." 

Athanasius says, ^' The Lord transferred the Sab- 
bath to the Lord's day." 

Yet, as we saw in the case of the Ebionites, 
some — especially the Judaizing Christians, and those 
who followed them — kept both days as more or less 
sacred. And although this was connived at for a 
time, it was not considered by the most enlightened 
as either needful or right. It was not in accordance 
with that previous law on which the sabbatical law 
was founded, viz., " Six days shalt thou labor and 
do all thy work." And the council of Laodicea, 
about the year 350, said, " Christians must not Ju- 
daize," — keep the Jewish Sabbath — " rather must 
they prefer in honor the Lord's day, and, if it be in 
their power, must rest in it as Christians." 

Constantine, when he came to the throne, A. D. 
316, enjoined the religious observance of the Lord's 
day, not only on all his own household, but com- 



THE FIRST CHRISTIANS. 123 

manded that it should be kept as a day of rest 
throughout the Roman empire, with the exception 
of what he considered works of necessity. He de- 
creed also, that the religious soldiers in his armies 
should be permitted to perform their religious duties 
on that day, without molestation. This he allowed 
also, to such as desired it, on the Jewish Sabbath. 
But the observance of the seventh day, though it had 
been connived at, and was by the emperor permit- 
ted, was not, as we see by the doings of the council 
of Laodicea, considered to be proper ; and they even 
went so far, though improperly, as to say, " If they 
be found Judaists," — keeping the seventh day — " let 
them be accursed." Leo, bishop of Rome, in behalf 
of the church, about the year 440, said, " We ordain, 
according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost, 
and of the apostles as thereby directed, that on the 
sacred day wherein our own integrity was restored, 
all do rest and cease from labor ; that neither hus- 
bandmen, nor other persons, on that day put their 
hands to forbidden works ; for if the Jews did so 
much honor their Sabbaths, which were but a shad- 
ow of ours, are not we, who inhabit the light and 
truth of grace, bound to honor that day which the 
Lord himself hath honored, and hath therein deliv- 
ered us both from dishonor and death ? Are we not 
bound to keep it singular and inviolable, well con- 



124 

tenting ourselves with so liberal a grant of the 
remainder, and not encroaching upon that one day 
which God hath chosen to his own honor ? Were 
it not reckless neglect of religion to make that very- 
day common, and to think we may do with it as 
with the rest?" 

Thus the keeping of the first day of the week as 
the day sacred to religious worship, is interwoven 
throughout the history of the church from the days 
of the apostles ; and we might, were it needful, con- 
tinue the history down to the present time. It was 
in view of such facts that Mosheim stated that, in 
the first century, all Christians were unanimous in 
setting apart the first day of the week for public 
worship, and that this was founded upon the ap- 
pointment of the apostles — who themselves conse- 
crated the day to the same sacred purpose — and that 
it was observed universally, as appears from the 
united testimony of the most credible writers. And 
in this he agrees with Eusebius, the great historian 
of the ancient church. 

He lived in the third century, was a man of vast 
reading, and was as well acquainted with the his- 
tory of the church from the days of the apostles as 
any man of his day. Till he was about forty years 
old, he lived in great intimacy with the martyr Pam- 
philus, a learned and pious man of Cesarea, and 



EUSEBITJS. 125 

founder of a very extensive library, to which Euse- 
bius had constant access. He was a learned and 
accurate historian, and had the aid of the best helps 
for acquiring information upon all subjects con- 
nected with the Christian church. 

In his " Commentary on the Psalms," he says, 
" On each day of our Saviour's resurrection," — that 
is, every first day of the week — " which is called 
Lord's day, we may see those who partake of that 
consecrated food, and that body" (of Christ) "which 
has saving efficacy, after the eating of it, bowing 
down to him." 

" I think that he " (the Psalmist) " describes the 
morning assemblies in which we " (Christians) " are 
accustomed to assemble throughout the world,^^ And 
again : 

" By this is prophetically signified the service 
which is performed very early, and every morning 
of the resurrection day," — the first day of the 
week — " throughout the whole world J ^ 

In commenting on the ninety-second psalm, which 
he calls a psalm for the Sabbath, and refers it to the 
Lord's day, he says, "it exhorts to those things 
which are done on the resurrection day." And, 
after observing that the sabbatical law was ad- 
dressed to the Jews, and that they often violated it, 
he says, " The Word," (Christ,) " by the new cove* 



126 THE lord's day. 

nant, translated and transferred the feast op 
THE Sabbath to the morning light, and gave 

us the true rest, viz., THE SAVING LoRd's DAY; 

the jirsV^ (^^y) "<^ t^^ light, in which the Saviour 
of the world, after all his labors among men, ob- 
tained the victory over death, and passed the portals 
of heaven, having achieved a work superior to the 
six days' creation. 

" On this day, which is the first of light and of 
the true Sun, we assemble, after an interval of six 
days, and celelrate holy and spiritual Sahhaths, — 

EVEN ALL NATIONS REDEEMED BY HIM THROUGHOUT 

THE WORLD, — and do those things, according to the 
spiritual law, which were decreed for the priests to 
do on the Sabbath ; for we make spiritual offerings 
and sacrifices, which are called sacrifices of praise 
and rejoicing. We make incense of a good odor to 
ascend, as it is said, ' Let my prayer come up be- 
fore thee as incense.' We also present the show- 
bread, reviving" — by the observance of the Lord's 
supper — "the remembrance of our salvation, the 
blood of sprinkling, which is the Lamb of God who 
taketh away the sins of the world, and which puri- 
fies our souls." 

Also, " We are diligent to do zealously, on that 
day, the things enjoined in this psalm, by word and 
work making confession to the Lord, and singing 



EUSEBixrs. 127 

in the name of the Most High. In the morning, 
with the rising of the light, we proclaim the mercy 
of God towards us, and his truth by night, exhibit- 
ing a sober and chaste demeanor. And all things 
whatsoever, that it was the duty to do on the Sahhath,^^ 
— meaning the Jewish seventh day — "these we 

HAVE TRANSFERRED TO THE LoRD's DAY, aS more 

appropriately belonging to it, because it had a pre- 
cedence, and is first in rank, and more honorable 
than the Jewish Sabbath. For on that day, in 
making the world, God said, * Let there be light,' 
and there was light; and on the same day" — the 
Lord's day — "the Sun of righteousness arose on 
our souls. Wherefore it is delivered to us that we 
should meet together on this day, and it is ordered 
that we should do those things announced in this 
psalm." 

Such, according to his testimony, was the course 
of Christians throughout the world. And he adds, 
"that the Scripture teaches that we are to spend 
the Lord's day in leisure for religious exercises, 
and in cessation and vacation from all bodily and 
mortal works — which the Scripture calls Sabhath 
and rest,^^ 

It is not to be forgotten that this testimony comes 
from the great ancient historian of the church, who 
had searched more thoroughly into its customs and 



128 THE lord's day. 

antiquities than any other man in the early ages. 
And it is decisive, as are the other testimonies, as to 
the religious observance of the Lord's day ; and they 
carry back the practice to the days of the apostles. 
As we have seen, it was the practice of the apostles 
themselves, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, 
and of the Christians in their day, who followed 
their direction and imitated their example. Of 
course it has the sanction of the Holy Ghost himself. 
As such, it has been continued in the true church 
of God to the present time. It is the original insti- 
tution established in paradise, and enjoined in the mo- 
ral law, in its spirit, its essential features, and its 
ends. It commemorates still the wonders of crea- 
tion, and, in addition, the greater wonders of redemp- 
tion ; and for that reason it was transferred, by the 
Lord of the Sabbath, to the day of his resurrection, 
when he broke the silence of the tomb, and rose, the 
acknowledged Conqueror of earth and hell, and the 
pledge of the resurrection and eternal life of his 
people. That was the day which he had made, in 
which they were to rejoice and be glad. Then he 
met with his disciples as they were assembled to- 
gether, spoke peace to their souls, and gave them 
his Spirit. Then, in fulfilment of prophecy, and of 
the great New Testament promise, the Holy Ghost 
descended upon them in tongues of fire, and fur- 



SANCTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 129 

nished them to go forth unto all nations and preach 
the Gospel to every creature. On that day, to the 
first sermon he gave such power that three thou- 
sand, and among them crucifiers, were converted to 
God. On that day, in all ages, when his people 
have assembled to pray, hear the Gospel, celebrate 
his love, and communicate for the benefit of the 
poor — whom they have always had with them, that 
whenever they would they might do them good — he 
has by his Spirit met with them, even with two or 
three thus gathered in his name, and has blessed 
them. And so he will continue to meet with those 
who, on that day, assemble to worship Him who is a 
Spirit, in spirit and in truth, and will manifest him- 
self to them, and take up his abode with them, so 
that they shall dwell in him, and he in them. 

Through his mighty power and abounding grace, 
their numbers will continue to increase; and in- 
crease till, in the language of the prophet, " from 
Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come and wor- 
ship before Jehovah.'^ For as the new heavens 
and the new earth which he creates shall remain, 
so shall their seed and their name remain; and 
from the rising of the sun to the going down of the 
same, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of men 
sliall be praised, and the whole earth be full of hiy 
glory, as the waters fill tlie seas. And great voices 

Sab. Manual. Q 



130 THE lord's bay, 

will be heard, saying, " The kingdoms of this worlH 
are become the kingdom of our God and his Christ." 
Then men will labor six days in a week, and rest 
on the seventh day. In it they will do no work, 
nor will their children, or servants, or cattle, or the 
stranger that is under their control, except as the 
appropriate duties of the Sabbath may require. But 
they will say, " O come, let us worship, let us kneel 
and bow down before the Lord our Maker ; for we 
are the sheep of his pasture, and the people of his 
hand." " Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving, 
and tread his courts with praise." " O come, let 
us sing unto the Lord, and make a joyful noise unto 
the Rock of our salvation." And the rising anthem 
will greet the morning sun from the farthest shores 
of Japan, and be echoed by millions on millions as 
he passes over China and Hindostan, Europe, Africa, 
America, and the Western Isles ; while New Hol- 
lander and Hindoo, Arab and Turk, Hottentot and 
Taheitan, with every islander of every sea, and all 
on earth and all in heaven, who have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, 
will swell the chorus, " Unto Him that loved us, 
and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests unto God and 
his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever 
and ever." 



SANCTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 131 

But it is asked. Did not our Saviour, when warn- 
ing his disciples concerning their escape from Jeru- 
salem, say, " Pray ye that your flight be not in the 
winter, neither on the Sabbath day," meaning the 
Jewish Sabbath? He did; and the reason was, 
some might have scruples about the lawfulness of 
travelling on that day, as far as it might be needful 
in order to make their escape. And as the Jews 
were so tenacious of the external observance of 
their Sabbath, that they would even suffer them- 
selves to be cut in pieces by their enemies rather 
than defend themselves on that day, the disciples 
might find it difficult, if not impossible to travel 
among them, and thus be hindered from making 
their escape. The direction was therefore perti- 
nent and kind, though their custom was to meet for 
public worship on the Lord^s day. 

It is again asked. Did not the apostle go into the 
synagogue and preach on the Sabbath ? and did not 
the Gentiles on one occasion, after the Jews were 
gone, request him to preach to them the next Sab- 
bath ? and on the next Sabbath did not almost the 
whole city come together to hear the word of God ? 
And did he not, on another occasion, go out to the 
side of a river, where prayer was wont to be made, 
and on the Sabbath speak to the women that resorted 
there ? And when at Corinth, did not Paul reason 



132 THE lord's day. 

in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuade both 
Jews and Greeks?" He did. And it all shows, 
what no one who is enlightened doubts, that the 
Jews met together on that day, and that Gentiles 
sometimes met with them. And the apostles em- 
braced those occasions, as good ministers would 
now, to preach the. Gospel. * 

It was a good opportunity for doing it. But this 
is perfectly consistent with all that has been said 
about their observing the Lord's day. Missionaries 
now, among Jews and pagans, preach on any day 
when the people assemble and are willing to hear ; 
though they meet for public worship and keep sacred 
the first day of the week. 

The Jewish converts, and those who followed 
them, kept for a time, with more or less strictness, 
the seventh as well as the first day, and the apostles 
did not at once forbid it. They directed, as they 
did with regard to some other things, that they 
should avoid harsh judgments of other Christians, 
and whereunto they had attained, walk by the same 
rule and mind the same things, with the expecta- 
tion that in time God would give them more light, 
and lead to still further agreement. 

But does not the apostle say, that under the Gos- 
pel there was to be no distinction of days, and that 
all Sabbaths were to be done away ? No ; he says 



TWO KINDS OF SABBATHS. 133 

no such thing ; though this has sometimes been attri- 
buted to him. 

Under the Jewish dispensation were incorporated 
two kinds of laws. One was founded on obligations 
growing out of the nature of men, and their relations 
to God and one another ; obligations binding before 
they were written, and which will continue to be 
binding upon all who shall know them, to the end 
of time. Such are the laws which were written by 
the finger of God on the tables of stone, and are 
called moral laws. 

The other kind, called ceremonial laws, related to 
various outward observances, which were not obli- 
gatory till they were commanded, and then were 
binding only on the Jews till the death of Christ. 

There were also two kinds of Sabbaths, or days 
of rest. One was a day of weekly rest ; and the 
command to keep it holy was placed by the Law- 
giver in the midst of the moral laws. It was called, 
by way of eminence, " The Sabbath." The com- 
mand to keep the other Sabbaths was placed by the 
Lawgiver among the ceremonial laws, because it 
was like them, as the command to keep the weekly 
Sabbath was like the laws with which it was asso- 
ciated. One class, were fundamental, permanent, 
universal moral laws ; the other class were local, 
temporary ceremonial laws. One had their origin 



184 

in the nature and relations of man ; the other in the 
peculiar circumstances in which, for a time, a pe- 
culiar people were placed. One would be binding 
in all ages, upon all who should know them ; and 
the other would be binding only upon the Jews till 
the death of the Messiah. 

The Jews, at the coming of Christ, being in a 
state of great spiritual darkness and grievous apos- 
tacy from God, did not well understand the nature 
and objects of their laws. Often they overlooked 
the spirit, and were superstitiously devoted to the 
forms. Some, after they embraced the Gospel, 
thought that the ceremonial as well as the moral 
laws were binding. Others, more enlightened, 
thought that they were not. This led to conten- 
tion among them. Paul, in the fourteenth chapter 
of Romans, presented such considerations as were 
adapted to lead them, in this matter, to a right 
decision. 

" One man," he says, " esteemeth one day above 
another. Another esteemeth every day alike. Let 
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the 
Lord ; and he that regardeth not the day, to the 
Lord he doth not regard it." Both mean to honor 
God, and he will accept them. But what day does 
he speak of? "The Sabbath" of the fourth com- 



TWO KINDS OF SABBATHS. 135 

maiidmentj associated by God inseparably with the 
moral laws ? Read the connection. ¥/hat is it ? 
Is it, one man believeth he must worship Jehovah ; 
another, who is weak, worshippeth idols ? One be- 
lieveth that he must not commit murder, adultery 
or theft, and another thinks he may ? Were those 
the laws about which they were contending, and 
with which were connected the days that he speaks 
of? No : about those laws there was no dispute. 

But, " One believeth that he may eat ail things," 
(which are nourishing, whether allowed in the cere- 
monial law, which regulated such things, or not;) 
" another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him 
that eatetli despise him that eateth not ; and let not 
him that eateth not judge him that eateth, for God 
hath received him." Those were the laws about 
which they were contending, and with regard to 
which the apostle was giving them instruction. It 
was not the morale but the ceremonial laws \ and the 
days spoken of were those which were connected, 
not with the former, but with the latter. 

So, in the second chapter of Colossians, *' Let no 
man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of 
a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths.'' 
The sabbaths spoken of are not " the Sabbath *' asso- 
ciated with, Thou shalt not commit murder, or 
adultery, or theft ; but the sabbaths associated with 



136 THE lord's day. 

meats and drinks, and new moons, which were, in- 
deed, shadows of things to come. But to take what 
he said about those sabbaths which were associated 
by God with ceremonial laws, and which the apos- 
tle himself, in this very discourse, associates with 
them, and apply it, as some have done, to " the 
Sabbath" which God associated with moral laws, 
is lorong, 

" Blotting out," he says, " the hand-writing of 
ordinances that was against us, which was contrarp 
to us, nailing it to his cross." But the day of weekly 
rest from the business and cares of this world, for 
the purpose of worshipping God and promoting the 
salvation of souls, is never spoken of in the Bible 
as being against men, or contrary to them. No : it 
always was, and always will be, for them. That 
Sabbath was made for man, not against him. 

Miracle after miracle was wrought by the Lord 
of the Sabbath, to enable his ancient people to keep 
it ; and whenever and wherever it is duly kept, it is a 

" Day of all the week the best, 
Emblem of eternal rest." 

It commemorates creation and redemption, and cele- 
brates the wondrous works of their Author. Its ob- 
servance is required, not only by the Bible, but by 



TWO KINI>S OF SABBATHS. 137 

the nature of both man and beast. To take what 
the apostle has said about those sabbaths associated 
by God — ^and by Paul himself also, in the very dis- 
course in question — with ceremonial laws, and apply 
it to " the Sabbath," about which he was not speak- 
ing, and which God has associated with moral laws, 
Is utterly wrong. No honest lawyer, that under- 
stands his business, will ever interpret laws in that 
way. Concerning those " carnal ordinances " which 
the apostle speaks of, which were against men, and 
which stood in meats and drinks, and new moons, 
and divers washings, sabbaths and other things, 
which were not designed to be permanent, we say, 
with Paul, ^' Touch not, taste not, handle not." 

While, with regard to spiritual ordinances, " the 
Sahiath,'^ and the moral law, of which it forms an 
inseparable part, we say, and we feel with the Lord 
of Paul, " It was made for man." The Saviour 
came not to destroy that law, but to fulfil it ; and in 
preaching the Gospel, neither he, nor Paul, nor any 
minister who preaches like them, ever makes void 
that law, but always establishes it. And till heaven 
and earth pass away, it will not pass away. 

God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
and for sin, not that the moral law should be abol- 
ished, but that the righteousness of the law should 
be fulfilled in them that walk not after the flesh, but 



138 THE lord's day. 

after the Spirit. And thus only will the law of the 
spirit of life in Christ Jesus make them free from 
the law of sin and death. Thus it has been, and 
thus it will be. Those men, wherever found, ^5^ill___ 
delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man. 
God, according to his promise, will write it upon 
their hearts, and they will have respect to all his 
commandments. The Sabbath will be to them a 
delight. The holy of the Lord will be honorable, 
and they will hanor him by devoting the day, not 
to purposes of worldly business, travelling or amuse- 
ment, but to his worship, and to the spiritual good 
of men. 

Says the celebrated Dr. Chalmers, " We never, 
in the whole course of our recollections, met with 
a Christian who bore upon his character every oilier 
evidence of the Spirit's operation, who did not remem- 
her the Sdblaih day, and keep it holy. We appeal 
to the memory of all the worthies who are lying in 
their graves, that, eminent as they were in every 
other grace and accomplishment of the new crea- 
ture, the religiousness of their Sabbath day shone 
with equal lustre amid the fine assemblage of virtues 
which adorned them. In every Christian house- 
hold, it will be found that the discipline of a well- 
ordered Sabbath is never forgotten among the old 
lessons of a Christian education ; and we appeal to 



DOCTOR CHALMERS. 139 

every individual who now hears us, and who carries 
the remembrance in his bosom of a father's worth 
and a father's piety, if, on the coming round of the 
seventh day, an air of peculiar sacredness did not 
spread itself over that mansion where he drew his 
first breath, and was taught to repeat his infant 
hymn, and lisp his infant prayer. Rest assured 
that the Christian, having the love of God written 
in his heart, and denying the Sabbath a place in 
his affections, is an anomaly that is nowhere to be 
found. Every Sabbath image, with every Sabbath 
circumstance, is dear to him. He loves the quiet- 
ness of that hallowed morn. He loves the church- 
bell sound which summons him to the house of 
prayer. He loves to join the chorus of devotion, 
and to sit and listen to that voice of persuasion which 
is lifted in the hearing of an assembled multitude. 
He loves the retirement of this day from the din of 
worldly business and the inroads of worldly men. 
He loves the leisure it brings along with it; and 
sweet to his soul is the exercise of that hallowed 
hour, when there is no eye to witness him but the 
eye of Heaven, and when, in solemn audience with 
the Father who seeth him in secret, he can, on the 
wings of celestial contemplation, leave all the cares 
and all the secularities of an alienated world behind 
lum." 



140 THE LORD^S DAY. 

And sweet especially is the hour when his com- 
munion and fellowship are truly with the Father 
and his Son Jesus Christ. Then in joyful anticipa- 
tion of the time when, with the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, whose names are writ- 
ten in heaven, he shall see Him as he is, and be 
like Him, his joy may emphatically be said to be 
FULL. And in the keeping of his Sabbaths, with 
their attendant means of grace, and in the discharge 
of the various and appropriate duties of life, God 
will guide him by his counsel, and afterwards receive 
him to glory : and then will he raise him from glory 
to glory, to endless ages. 



No. III. 



THE SABBATH A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 

The object of the Sabbath is the same, as that for 
which God made the world, and for which he makes 
all the displays of his character — to bring glory to 
himself in the highest, and manifest most effioa- 
ciously and extensively good will to men. 

In pursuance of this object and in the best way to 
promote it, he established at the creation two great, 
fundamental, and permanent Institutions. The first 
was that of Marriage, or the union, for life, of one 
man and one woman, as the head of one family. 
The next was the Sabbath, or the day of weekly 
rest from worldly business and cares, and of special 
devotion to the worship of God and the promotion 
of the spiritual good of men. Both were established 
in Paradise, before the fall, and were "made for 
man.'^ Both are suited to his nature, adapted to his 
capacities, and essential to the supply of his wants. 
They were so at the beginning, tney are so now; 
and they will continue to be so, in all countries, to 



142 THE SABBATH 

the end of time. They are parts of one whole, and 
mutually aid and sustain each other. 

Though created in the image of his Maker, and 
surrounded with everything beautiful to the eye, 
charming to the ear, and delightful to the taste, it 
was not good that man should be alone : he was 
not made to be alone, with no companions but the 
fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the beasts 
of the field. Though very good for the purposes 
for which they were made, they could not be com- 
panions for him : they could not sympathize with 
him, they could not understand his feelings, or 
enter into and be partakers of his joys; yet he 
was social in his nature, and needed a friend on 
earth as well as in heaven, one seen as well as one 
unseen — one who would be an help meet for him. 
So God made one, and gave her to him. He re- 
ceived her as the gift of God, to be henceforth 
united to him in bonds so tender, lasting, and kind, 
that he said, " This is now bone of my bone and 
flesh of my flesh:" this is a part of me. Now I 
am complete as a whole for the purpose for which 
I was made : viz. to receive^ and to communicate 
the knowledge of God to others, and hy so doing pos^ 
sess and reflect the image, and show forth the glory 
of Jehovah. For this cause shall a man leave his 
&ther who begat him, and who brought him up as a 



A FAMILY INSTITXmON. 148 

child; his mother who nursed him, who dandled 
him upon her knees, and whom he loves as his own 
soul ; and he shall be joined to his wife, and they 
tAvo shall be one — one head of one family, composed 
of one man and one woman. 

And wherefore one only ? With God was the 
residue of the Spirit ; he had all power, and could 
have created many women for each man : why did 
he create but one ? Because one was enough — all 
that was needed, and all that would consist with 
the accomplishment in the best manner of the end 
which he had in view ; the communication of the 
knowledge of himself by parents to their children ; 
the training of them in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord, and the spreading of the blessings of 
salvation through the world. For this there must 
be one head, composed of one man and one woman, 
and one only, that there may be oneness of affection 
and judgment, oneness of counsel and effort. This 
could be secured so perfectly in no other way. 
Therefore God made but one, and established mar- 
riage with but one ; forbidding any husband to put 
away his wife except for that one cause which he 
himself specified. This arrangement, like all the 
works of God, was very good — perfect. 

It was, however, afterwards departed from by 
wicked men, and even by some of the friends of 



144 THE SABBATH 

God. In the darkness of human apostacy, and 
under the influence of sin, some took many wives. 
But God never approved of it. He never sanctioned 
it, or even permitted it, in any such sense as to im- 
ply approbation. He merely suffered it, on account 
of the hardness of their hearts ; and adopted regula- 
tions suited in some measure to lessen its evils. He 
suffered a man to put away his wife, even the wife 
of his youth, by writing a bill of divorcement and 
putting her away that he might take others. And 
he suffered them, in some cases, to take many wives. 
But it was only on account of their wickedness that 
he suffered it. In the beginning it was not so : it 
ought never to have been so ; and had they followed 
the appointment of God it never would have been 
so. He always hated that putting away of one's 
wife, and that taking of many wives. And his 
adopting regulations to counteract in some measure 
its evils, was not designed to show that it was right, 
or to express any approbation of it ; but only to les- 
sen its mischiefs till the time should come, when, by 
increasing light and love, it might through grace be 
forever done away, and all men return again to the 
good and right way of the Lord. 

The fact that God sometimes adopts regulations 
to lessen, in some measure, the evils which a wicked 
practice would otherwise occasion, is not to be con- 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 145 

sirued as an approbation of that practice. It means 
no such thing. All that it means is, that he would 
in some measure counteract its evils : while in some 
measure too, he lets those evils come upon the trans- 
gressors, that both mercies and judgments may lead 
them to repentance and newness of life, that so they 
may escape final condemnation. 

That, for a time, was the case with polygamy, 
divorce, and other evils, which on account of the 
hardness of men's hearts he suffered in days of 
darkness and ignorance; which he winked at; but 
of which sins he now commandeth all men every- 
where, on whom the true light shines, to repent, and 
do works meet for repentance. " And he answered 
and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which 
made them at the beginning, made them male and 
female ; and said. For this cause shall a man leave 
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife ; and 
they twain shall be one flesh ? Wherefore they are 
no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God 
hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They 
say unto him. Why did Moses then command to 
give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away ? 
He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness 
of your hearts, suffered you to put away your 
wives ; but from the beginning it was not so. And 
I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, 

Sab. Manual. 1 A 



X46 THE SABBATH 

except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, 
committeth adultery ; and whoso marrieth her which 
is put away, doth commit adultery." Matt. 19 : 4-9. 
And all who do repent, and follow the true light, will 
return to the original arrangement of one woman for 
one man, united for life, as the head of one family ; 
that they may raise up " a godly seed," and be bless- 
ed in Him in whom the families of the earth were 
designed to be blessed. 

GOVERNMENT. 

Children are the creatures, and, as such, the prop- 
erty of God. He commits them to their parents as 
his representatives and officers, to receive and train 
them for his service. For this purpose they are, from 
the beginning, to consecrate them to him, and early 
to teach them the first great lesson of his moral gov- 
ernment, " Not my will, but thine be done :" that 
they must not be permitted to have their own way, 
to govern themselves, or others. They are not qual- 
ified to govern. They have not lived long enough ; 
they do not know enough, they are not good enough, 
they are not strong enough. Their interest, safety, 
excellence, and usefulness, their happiness, and the 
happiness of others, all require that they should not 
govern, but be governed. Parents are God's officers 
to teach them this truth, which lies at the founda- 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 147 

tion of his moral government, and the practical ex- 
perimental knowledge of which is essential to the ex- 
cellence, usefulness, and happiness of every human 
being. 

And yet every child is disposed at first to govern 
himself- — ^to have his own way. No sooner does he 
possess and manifest desires, than he is disposed 
to gratify them, and to oppose all who undertake 
to control him. Yet he must be controlled, and 
taught to submit his will to the will of his parents. 
And it is an instructive fact, that there is not a 
child in the world, of common sense, that cannot be 
taught to do this, and so early that he will never 
remember the time when he began to do it ; and so 
perfectly too, that he will not forget it ; and so 
constantly that it will, by habit, become a kind of 
second nature ; and so kindly, that it will, by and 
by, be his delight. And among his highest joys 
will be that of the approbation of his parents. 

He can be taught not to disobey them, as he is 
taught not to put his finger in the candle, which 
burns so brightly, looks so beautifully, and so 
strongly tempts every little child that sees it to take 
hold of it. He is warned of danger. He is told 
that it will burn. But having no faith and little ex- 
perience, and not choosing to submit his will to that 
of another, he tries it, and he finds a law there — the 



148 THE SABBATH 

law of God ; and a penalty — the penalty which God 
in love has established, prompt, uniform, and effica- 
cious. It is a penalty suited to the nature of the 
child, is appropriate to his condition, and exactly 
meets his wants. He does not try it again : certain- 
ly not often. The way of transgressors is found 
to be too hard to be often tried, and he learns a les- 
son for life : you must not touch the fire. You may 
look at it, and have all the benefit of its light and 
heat, but you must not put your hand in it. If you 
do, it will burn you. There is a law there, and a 
penalty. These God has joined together, and no 
man can put them asunder. Fire will burn, and 
burn hard enough to make any child of common 
sense, very early, keep out of it. It has left its im- 
press, and a burnt child ever after dreads the fire. 
This ohedience to natural laws is an apprenticeship 
for ohedience to moral laws. 

So, when that child is old enough to understand 
what is meant, and is told not to disobey his mother, 
or his father : that it is not safe ; that it will give 
him pain — suppose he tries it, and the parent does 
his duty ; the child will find a law there, and a 
penalty, both of God's appointment, namely this : 
" Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not 
ihy soul spare for his crying.'^ If it be needful, 
and nothing else will do, '^ withhold not correction 



A FAMILY mSTlTUTIOIf. 149 

from the child, for though thou beat him with a rod he 
shall not die : thou shalt beat him with the rod, and 
shalt save his soul from hell.'' This is the great 
object of family government, to save children from 
hell and fit them for heaven. "He that spareth the 
rod," when it is necessary to keep his child from 
knowingly and wilfully disobeying his parent, " hat- 
eth his child :" that is, he acts as if he hated him : 
he takes the way to ruin him. But the parent that 
loveth him with the love that God requires, and 
acts according to the dictates of heavenly wisdom, 
"chasteneth him betimes." He does it early — as 
soon as it is needed. He does it uniformly and 
kindly : he does it promptly and firmly. He does 
it thoroughly, and thus he does it efficaciously. He 
does not wait till the child has become a rebel of 
long standing, and by fixed habits of treason against 
lawful authority, become obdurate, and his heart 
like the nether millstone. He takes him while 
young and tender, before he has learned the tactics 
of war, or acquired by practice the arts of self-de- 
fence. In no pitched battle does he ever allow him 
to conquer; or to come ofiT doubtful as to the 
result ; both parties claiming the victory, and both 
provoking each other to wrath and future contests. 
No : he settles the question, once for all. 

The parent has the power, he has the right, he 



150 THE SABBATH 

has the authority, he has the opportunity : upon 
him rests the obligation; and his will be the guilt, 
and his the condemnation, if he does not have the 
victory ; and so decisively that the conquered shall 
feel it, and acknowledge it, and henceforth under- 
stand that to contend with heaven-appointed parental 
authority, power and love, is hopeless. 

The wisdom and the goodness, the strength and 
the patience, the firmness and the perseverance are 
all comparatively, when the parent does his duty, 
on one side. If the little, selfish, imbecile thing 
will contend with any hope of success, it must be 
with his equal : but woe to him that contendeth with 
parents, the divinely- appointed representatives of his 
Maker, in the great, the glorious, the everlastingly 
momentous work of applying the great principles of 
Jehovah's government, according to his will, to the 
souls which he has made and by the blood of his 
only begotten Son redeemed, that they may be for- 
ever to the praise of the glory of his infinite grace. 
In that contest is torment — prompt, continued, and 
great enough to lead every child of common sense, 
early, very early, to cease from pursuing it. And 
if for a moment it is tempted to renew the conflict, 
it foreseeth the evil, and escapeth it. Or if it be so 
simple as to pass on and renew the contest, the pa- 
rent that suffers it to usurp and retain the reins of 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 151 

government, is recreant to his duty to the child, to 
himself, to the community, and to God ; and nought 
but grace divine, triumphing over guilt of a crimson 
dye, can save him or his children from perdition. 

Nor does the teaching of a child even by the rod, 
if it be necessary in order to lead it promptly and 
habitually to submit its will to the will of its parent, 
imply any want of wisdom, or affection, intelligence, 
or refinement. It is the dictate of them all. As 
well might a man contend that the law of fire and 
its penalty indicate a .want of wisdom or kindness 
in their Author. They are the dictate of both, and 
are adapted to the nature and condition of every 
child of Adam. 

So with family government. The voice comes 
from the heart of God, saying, "Chasten thy son 
while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for 
his crying." That is, do this, if it be necessary, to 
take the government out of the hand of the child, and 
place it, by mutual consent, permanently in the 
hand of the parent, where God designed and com- 
manded that it should be placed, and where the good 
of the universe requires that it should be continued, 
in order that the government of God in due time 
may have its legitimate effect on the children, 
and through them on their children, and all who in 
time or eternity may feel their influence. 



152 THE SABBATH 

Parental government is sometimes treated as if it 
were a small or trivial affair. Through careless- 
ness, or imbecility, false affection, or sloth, or on 
account of covetous devotion to the world, it is suf- 
fered to slip out of the hands of parents, or they 
neglect to use it, and sufler it to be taken and 
retained by the children. This is treason against 
the King of heaven, and against the welfare of the 
universe. 

Here is an heir of immortality starting on his 
course of endless being, to rise forever higher and 
higher in excellence, usefulness and bliss, or sink 
deeper and deeper in debasement, infamy and woe. 
All for eternity depends upon his saying voluntarily, 
cheerfully, and habitually to his heavenly Parent, 
*' Not my will but thine be done." Earthly parents 
are his representatives, who, by teaching the child 
thus to submit his will to theirs, are to prepare him 
to submit his will to the will of God. One is an 
apprenticeship for the other ; and if not secured, all 
may be lost, irretrievably lost. It is to be secured 
without correction, if it can be ; but if it cannot be, 
no needful correction is to be withheld. Secured it 
must be, and wherever parents obey God, secured 
it will be, and there be in each family but one head; 
and that, not the children, but the parents — that 
united and divinely-appointed head of father and 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 153 

mother. Their voice, echoing the voice of God, will 
come as one having authority. And though uttered 
in meekness, and answered in love, it will govern. 
That government, administered in love, will awaken, 
secure, and perpetuate love ; and the family, under 
its guidance, with the blessing of God, will become 
a nursery for heaven. The effects of it will show 
that parental government " was made for man." It 
is adapted to his nature in the morning of life, and 
essential to his present and future good. 

Obedience on the part of the children, by habit, 
uniform and kind, will by and by become easy, and 
even delightful. They will not need, like the horse 
and mule, to be held in and guided with bit and 
bridle. They may be guided by the eye. A look, 
or a motion, a wish expressed in any way, is suffi- 
cient. They hear a voice within echoing the voice 
of God, " Children, obey your parents, for that is 
right." Conscience echoes, "that is right." And 
the soul, if it does not obey, feels guilty. Though 
surrounded with the darkness of midnight, and seen 
by no mortal eye, if it does what it knows is forbid- 
den by its father, or its mother, it condemns itself. 
The footsteps of its parent make it feel somewhat 
as Adam felt, when he heard the voice of his Father 
among the trees of the garden, and sought to hide ; 
and perhaps it will try to sew fig-leaves together to 



154 THE SABBATn 

cover its shame. Moral government has hegun ; tlie 
government of God ; a 'preparation for ^ and an Intro- 
duciion to which is, hy Divine appointment, the govern- 
ment of earthly parents. On the basis of this, when 
they come to know Him who made them, and who 
has nourished and brought them up as children, a 
voice from heaven will be heard, saying, " If I be a 
father, where is mine honor ; and if I be a master, 
where is my fear ?" And they will be much more 
likely in future life to have that fear of the Lord 
which is the beginning of wisdom, and that good 
understanding which is imparted to all who obey 
him, than they would have been if they had not 
been taught thus early, promptly, habitually and 
conscientiously, to obey their earthly parents, 

INSTRUCTION. 

The question of government having thus been 
settled, another part of the duty of parents towards 
their children, in order to accomplish the end for 
which families were made, is oral instruction ; or 
the communication of knowledge by word of mouth, 
especially the knowledge of God their Creator, 
Redeemer, and Sanctifier : the knowledge of them- 
selves, their relations and duties, and the conse- 
quences of performing those duties or of neglecting 
them. The mode of communication should be, not 



A FAMILY INStiTE'tJTION. 155 

in set forms, or at stated periods merely, but "line 
upon line and precept upon precept, here a little 
and there a little," as they are able to bear it. In 
the house and by the way, when they lie down 
and when they rise up, parents must communicate 
knowledge as there is time and opportunity, and as 
the children are prepared to receive and use it to 
advantage. 

These instructions must be drawn from the works, 
the word, and the providence of God. To the child 
as well as the man, when rightly taught, " the 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment showeth his handy work. Day unto day ut- 
tereth speech, and night unto night showeth know- 
ledge." Though they do not speak in audible Ian- 
guage, yet they speak to the mind and the heart, 
and in such a manner that " the invisible things of 
God, from the creation of the world, may be clearly 
seen by the things that are made, even his eternal 
power and Godhead;" so that they will be lefl 
" without excuse," who do not love and adore him. 

The wondrous facts which meet them at the 
opening of the Bible, that " in the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all 
that in them is ;" that " the things which are seen 
were not made of things which appear," but were 
created; that " he spake, and it was done, he com- 



156 THE SABBATH 

manded, and it stood fast," saying, " Let there be 
light, and there was light " — let there be a firma- 
ment, and there was a firmament, cannot be com- 
municated to children and believed by them, without 
producing a strong impression. They will feel what 
the revelation of these facts was designed to make 
them feel, that " Jehovah is a great God, and a great 
King above all gods : in his hand are the deep places 
of the earth, the strength of the hills is his also ; the 
sea is his, he made it, and his hands formed the 
dry land." 

The consequence is, as the little child may see, 
" The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; 
the world, and they that dwell therein." He owns 
them by the highest possible title, and he has a per- 
fect right to govern and dispose of them according 
to his pleasure ; for he is not only great, but also 
wise and good. The earth is full of the riches of 
his goodness; so is the great and wide sea wherein 
are things creeping innumerable, and where goeth 
that leviathan which he hath made to play therein. 
These all wait upon him, and he giveth them their 
meat in due season. All his works praise him, and 
those who know his character and ways are bound 
to bless him ; for he openeth his hand, and supplieth 
the wants of every living thing. 

This children, even little children, in view of the 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 157 

facts, may feel. He thought of tliem before he 
made them, and thought of them in love. He pro- 
vided kind arms to embrace them when they came 
into the world ; kind hearts to love them, and hands 
to feed and to clothe them. The Lord is good to 
all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. 
He is good to them, as every parent may and ought 
to show them, and thus, through nature, lead them 
up to nature's God. All the blessings which they 
receive through their parents, come from him. 
Thus, day by day, he gives them their daily bread ; 
watches over them in health, heals them in sickness, 
and takes care of them as his children : when they 
slumber, and their parents are asleep, unconscious, 
and can protect neither themselves nor their chil- 
dren, their Father in heaven, who never slumbers 
or sleeps, takes care of them. Never for a moment, 
since they were born, has he ceased to do them 
good. Though they have often forgotten him, and 
sinned against him, have done those things which 
they ought not to have done, and left undone those 
things which they ought to have done ; though they 
have evil hearts of unbelief in departing from the 
living God ; and though all men have gone out of 
the right way, and there are none naturally disposed 
to do what is spiritually good, no, not one, yet he 
has not destroyed them. 



158 THE SABBATH 

But when through their rebellion against him 
they were lost, and there was no eye to pity and no 
arm to save, his eye pitied, and his arm brought 
salvation. He so loved them, even in their enmity I 
against him, that he gave his dearly beloved and 
only begotten Son to die for them, the just for the 
unjust, that whosoever believeth on him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life. 

And now he offers them all the blessings of his 
salvation, freely, without money and without price. 
The wicked of every description may forsake their 
ways, and the unrighteous their thoughts, and turn 
unto the Lord, who will have mercy upon them, 
and unto our God, who will abundantly pardon. 
Though their sins were as scarlet, they shall be 
white as snow ; though they were red like crimson, 
they shall become as wool. From all their Pithi- 
ness and their idols, he will cleanse them; anew 
heart he will give them, and a new spirit put within 
them : he will take away the heart of stone, the hard 
unfeeling heart, and give them a heart of flesh, one 
that is easily moved by the knowledge of his truth, 
that is penitent for sin, and grateful for mercies ; 
that looks unto Jesus, who bore our sins in his own 
body on the tree ; and trusting in him for salvation 
and all needed good, finds rest, and peace, and joy. 
Thus is God in Christ reconciling the world unto 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 159 

himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, 
but forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. 

And the more the soul of the child knows of itself, 
the more it will feel its need of Christ and his sal- 
vation ; and the more it will appreciate the truth, 
that he is exalted to give repentance and remission 
of sins. 

The Holy Ghost also is provided, to take of the 
things of Christ and show them unto men; to work 
in them both to will and to do, and to fulfil all the 
good pleasure of his goodness, even the work of 
faith, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, meekness and temperance, with great 
power. These things may all be in them, while 
young, and abound, and be manifested to his glory, 
their good, and the good of all who may feel their 
influence ; and through their instrumentality multi- 
tudes may be led to glorify their Father in heaven. 
Thus, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings he 
may perfect his praise. 

Ready as earthly parents are to give good gifts to 
their children, as such children have often experi- 
enced, more ready is God to give the Holy Spirit, 
and all needed good, to them that ask him. '^ He 
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
give us all things ?" The consequence is, every in- 



160 THE SABBATH 

dividual, as soon as he knows these facts, is bound to 
believe on him, and to ask that he may receive the 
Holy Spirit ; to seek that he may fmd, and to knock 
that the door of mercy may be opened unto him. 
And so ready is God to give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask him, that every one that asketh receiveth, 
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knock- 
eth the door is opened. 

Of course, if any one to whom the way of life is 
made known fails of being converted from the error 
of his ways to the wisdom of the just, and obtaining 
salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, it will he 
Ms own fault. It will be because he did not choose 
the fear of the Lord, would none of his counsel, and 
despised his reproof. He will eat the fruit of his 
own way. And it will be more tolerable for Tyre 
and Sidon, and even for Sodom and Gomorrah, in 
the day of judgment, than it will be for him. The 
angels will come forth and sever the wicked from 
among the just, and cast them into a furnace of fire, 
and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 
AH that are in their graves shall hear his voice and 
come forth ; they that have done good unto the resur- 
rection of life, and they that have done evil to the 
resurrection of damnation. 

Such are some of the truths of the Bible, which 
in due time, in suitable proportion, and in proper 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 161 

ways, parents are bound to communicate to their 
children ; that they may have that fear of the Lord 
which is the beginning of wisdom, and that good 
understanding which is imparted to those that obey 
him. 

But they must not rest satisfied with the commu- 
nication of those truths, or any of the truths of the 
Bible, by word of mouth merely, or on their own 
authority. They must teach their children to read, 
that they may search the Scriptures for themselves, 
and thus hear the voice of God in his word, declaring 
the same great truths ; that their faith may stand, 
not in the wisdom, or on the authority of men, but 
on the testimony of God, 

They must also teach them to read some portion 
of his truth daily ; and ask him, by prayer and sup- 
plication for the teaching of his Spirit, that they 
may understand, believe, and obey it, and that it 
may thus be spirit and life to their souls. 

EXAMPLE. 

In order to secure the performance of these duties 
by their children, parents must daily read the Bible 
themselves, and pray, not only in secret, hut in their 
families. All the family must assemble and hearken 
to the voice of their common God and Father ; bow 

Sftb. Manual t i 



162 THE SABBATH 

before him in confession of their sins, and in humble 
supplication for his mercy ; render thanks for his 
benefits, and ask of him the blessings which they 
need for the body and the soul, for time and eternity, 
especially the blessings of his grace, that they may 
all be made wise unto salvation through faith in 
Jesus Christ. 

And in the duties and events of the day, parents 
must manifest those feelings of supreme regard to 
God and good will to men, the duty of exercising 
which they inculcate on their children ; and must 
set them an example of living, not unto themselves, 
but unto Him who died for them and rose again. 

Under the influence of such government, instruc- 
tion and example, they may expect, with the bless- 
ing of God, that their children will know him, and 
Jesus Christ whom he has sent ; and will become 
followers of those who through faith and patience 
are now inheriting the promises, where they hunger 
no more, neither thirst any more ; where the Lamb 
leads them to fountains of living water, and wipes 
away all tears from their eyes. For having been 
enlightened and trained up in the way they should 
go, by the good government, instruction, and exam- 
ple of parents, according to the will of God, con- 
science will speak for him ; and the children will 
learn to reason, as they do in heaven, and as those 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 163 

who are there did, when on earth : " If we have 
had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we 
gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be 
in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live ?" not 
merely for fifty or seventy years, as men sometimes 
exist on earth, but forever and ever — heirs too, not 
to that which shall perish with the using, and which 
parents often toil day and night to lay up for their 
children, but to an inheritance incorruptible, unde- 
filed, and which shall never fade away ? 

And, if rebellion against earthly parents, who have 
nourished and brought up their children, is guilt so 
awful, that " the eye that mocketh at his father and 
despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley 
shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it," 
of how much sorer punishment will they be thought 
worthy who, amidst the overflowings of Infinite kind- 
ness and the wonders of boundless grace, continue 
to rebel against their Father in heaven ? Surely it 
must be a fearful thing for them to fall into the 
hands of the living God, who hath said, " Vengeance 
is mine : I will repay." And as, through faith in 
his word, they see him bringing in the flood upon the 
world of the ungodly, and setting forth the in^iabit- 
ants of Sodom for examples, suffering the vengeance 
of eternal fire ; and see the wicked at the day of 
judgment going away into everlasting punishment, 



164 THE SABBATH 

and the righteous into life eternal ; and at the same 

time see Jehovah, now on a throne of mercy, inviting 
even the chief of sinners to come unto him and live, 
they may through grace be moved to flee for refuge 
to lay hold on the hope set before them ; to deny 
ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, 
righteously and godly ; looking unto Jesus the author 
and finisher of faith, who, for the joy set before him, 
endured even the cross, despising the shame, and is 
now at the right hand of Majesty on high. Of his 
fulness they may receive, even grace for grace. 
He will then guide them by his counsel, and after- 
wards receive them to glory, where they will see 
him as he is, be like him, and with him rise from 
glory to glory, through endless being. 

Such are the effects of family government, in- 
struction and example, accompanied by the Spirit 
of God ; and eternity will not be too long to illus- 
trate his wisdom and goodness in the establishment 
of families, and in the grace manifested through 
them to the souls of men. 

THE SABBATH A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 

Were there no other institution hut the family, there 
would he no such government, instruction and exam- 
jpZe, as have been above illustrated, nor would their 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 165 

blessings ever come upon the world. Though wise 
and good, and worthy in all respects of its Divine 
Author, the family arrangement alone would fail 
of accomplishing its high and momentous purpose. 
Of the family, therefore, as well as of individual 
man, it may be said, it was not good that it should 
he alone. It would not, in that state, accomplish 
the end for which it was established, viz. the raising 
up of a " godly seed," increasing from generation 
to generation, till they should be a multitude that 
no man can number ; bearing the image, reflecting 
the likeness, and showing forth the glory of their 
Redeeming God. 

God therefore, in prosecution of his plan of mercy, 
made " an help meet " for the family, and gave it 
to the race ; that, under its influence, men might be 
fitted for the purpose for which they were made: 
To know Jehovah as their Creator, Redeemer, and 
Sanctijier, and communicate that knowledge to others, 
that through its influence they may le prepared for 
his service on earth, and the joys of his presence in 
heaven. 

That help meet for the family, was the Sabbath. 
" I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between 
me and them, that they might know that I am Jeho- 
vah that doth sanctify them." This was what they 
needed, and what, to accomplish the end for which 



166 THE SABBATH 

they were made, they must have. And they must 
observe it, or they will fail of its benefits. Hence 
the command, " Hallow, (that is, keep, observe in 
a sacred manner,) my Sabbaths, and they shall be a 
sign between me and you, that ye may know that 1 
am Jehovah your God,'' The proper observance of 
that day will be instrumental in communicating this 
knowledge, and in rendering it efficacious over their 
hearts and lives; especially when, from earliest 
childhood, they have been, by their parents, uni- 
formly trained up in that way. 

But let men work seven days in a week, or be 
employed continuously in worldly business and 
cares, from month to month, and year to year, with- 
out days for rest and spiritual duties, and they will 
remain ignorant of God as their Sanctifier, and des- 
titute of that holiness, without which they cannot 
enjoy him. Their children will not be governed or 
instructed according to his will ; nor will they be 
trained up in the way they should go. You may 
give them the Bible, but they will not read it. You 
may preach the Gospel, but they will not hear it. 
You may circulate religious Tracts, but they will 
be neglected ; or if they are sometimes read, and 
seem for a moment to make an impression, unless 
they lead men to keep the Sabbath, the cares of the 
world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pride of life. 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 167 

will choke all, and render it unfruitful. The good 
word of the kingdom will be as water falling upon 
a rock, and making no impression. It will be as 
seed sown by the wayside, which the fowls of the 
air pick up ; or among thorns, which spring up and 
choke it ; or on stony places, where it has no depth 
of earth, and where it will wither away. 

Though diligence in business, useful, appropriate 
business, six days in a week, is a duty ; and, next 
to true religion, is the great safeguard of man, espe- 
cially in youth ; although it is required by God, and 
is the appropriate manifestation of true religion, yet 
if, against the known will of God, it is continued unin- 
terruptedly seven days in a week, for the purpose of 
making money, it will, notwithstanding all the means 
of grace, drown men in destruction and perdition. 

Or if they stop their business on the Sabbath, only 
to spend the day in idleness and sloth, in travelling, 
amusements, dissipation and wickedness, this will 
work out damnation. All the efforts of Infinite kind- 
ness for their restoration to holiness, and preparation 
for heaven, will be counteracted : worldly-minded 
they will live, and worldly-minded they will die. 
With carnal hearts they will go to the judgment, 
and reap the fruit of everlasting enmity to God. 

Hence the command, obedience to which was 
required by all that is blissful in heaven, and all that 



168 THE SABBATH 

is agonizing in hell : " My Sabbaths ye shall keep ; 
for it is a sign between me and you, throughout 
your generations, that ye may know that I am Jeho- 
vah that doth sanctify you." " Ye shall keep the 
Sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you." " Six 
days may work be done, but on the seventh is the 
Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord." " For in six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the 
seventh day he rested and was refreshed." 

To hedge up the way against the violation of the 
Sabbath, and to make it not only the duty, but for 
the interest of men, physically and morally, to keep 
it, God has made both man and beast with a nature 
that cannot be employed continuously seven days 
in a week to advantage, or without the diminution 
of health, and the curtailing of life. 

He has also made but six days in a week for secu- 
lar business and cares ; has given to men no more, 
and has rendered it impossible for them to take any 
more, without taking what is not theirs^ and thus 
showing that they are at heart dishonest ; and by 
acting out that dishonesty, exerting a most delete- 
rious influence on themselves and others. In addi- 
tion to this, he has written with his own finger and 
placed on a permanent record, among fundamental, 
unchanging and universal laws, the moral obligation 
which grows out of this nature of things, which he 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 169 

has established; and has proclaimed in the most 
explicit and positive manner his command, saying, 
" Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six 
days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; but the 
seventh day (which is the day that comes next after 
the sixth working day,) is the Sabbath of the Lord 
thy God : in it thou shalt ,not do any work, thou, 
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant nor 
thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger 
that is within thy gates," or under thy control. 

From the form of this command, addressed as it 
is to the head of the family, requiring all under his 
control to keep it, it is evident that it is a family 
INSTITUTION. Like the obedience of children to 
their parents, God has made it the duty of the head 
of the family to see that it is observed. And one 
great object that God had in view in the establish- 
ment of family government was, that through its 
influence the observance of the Sabbath might be 
secured, and thus its benefits be obtained, by the 
children. Hence, before they are old enough to 
know that there is a Sabbath, or even a God, they 
must be taught to obey their parents ; and the habit 
must be so firmly fixed, that when they come to 
know God and the Sabbath, obedience to their pa- 
rents, as well as obedience to God, will lead them 
to keep it. If they do not, but openly violate it, 



170 THE SABBATH 

sentence against that evil work must be executed 
speedily^ as it must be when they disobey the known 
command of their father, or their mother ; and as it 
is, when they put their hand into the fire. If no- 
thing else will prevent it, parents who obey God 
will chasten them hetimes. while there is hope, and 
not spare for their crying. 

With regard to the Sahhath, the government of the 
parents, and the government of God coalesce : one is 
the means of preparing the children for, and securing 
their obedience to the other. It is the great institu- 
tion, through the influence of which those who have 
been trained into the habit of obeying their parents 
are to be initiated into the habit of obeying God ; so 
that by practice, while they are young, it may be- 
come so firmly fixed, that when they become old 
they will not depart from it. And it is the institu- 
tion which God blesses for that purpose ; and with- 
out the observance of which they will never become 
accustomed to obey him, or receive those blessings 
which that obedience confers. Of course parents 
who do not require their children to keep the Sab- 
bath, but who suffer them openly and habitually to 
profane it, are not only disobeying God themselves, 
but are taking the course which is adapted to per- 
petuate everlasting disobedience in their children. 
If it be continued, he may say of them as he did to 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 171 

Eli, " I will do a thing, at which the ears of every one 
tJiat heareth it shall tingle :" because their children 
made themselves vile, and they restrained them not. 

On the one hand, many a parent, as a punishment 
for his sin in allowing the breaking of the Sabbath 
by his children, whom, when young, he did not re- 
strain, in after life has had his gray hairs brought 
down with sorrow to the grave. 

On the other hand, parents not a few, who accus- 
tomed their children, when young, promptly and 
uniformly to obey them ; and who, when they be- 
came old enough to understand, communicated to 
them a knowledge of the character and will of God, 
and of their relations and duties to him i who set 
them a good example, and who accustomed them 
to keep the Sabbath holy, and spend it in worship- 
ping Jehovah and in learning, for the purpose of 
doing, his will ; have had the unspeakable joy of see- 
ing them, in after life, walking in the truth ; growing 
up in the fear and love of God, and in the esteem 
and confidence of men, to be ornaments to society, 
pillars in the church, and benefactors to the world. 

SABBATH INFLUENCE. 

There is something in the nature of the Sabbath, 
and in the effect which the proper keeping of it has 
on the minds of children, which is adapted to pro- 



172 THE SABBATH 

duce these results. In addition to this, there is the 
special blessing of God which he bestows upon those 
who thus observe it, in fulfilment of his promise, 
" Those who honor me I will honor." 

As the earth, prepared of God, and treated by men 
according to his appointment, brings forth fruit ; 
first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn 
in the ear ; so the Sabbath with its means of grace, 
in the closet, in the family, in the house of God, 
treated according to his appointment, under his bless- 
ing, is instrumental in bringing forth and maturing 
fruits of righteousness to the praise of the glory of 
his grace. Sons and daughters are born of the 
Spirit, and prepared for glory, honor, immortality, 
and eternal life. No one can witness the effects of 
the keeping of the Sabbath on little children, and 
follow its influence up through youth and riper 
years, without feeling that it was made for them 
by Hirn who made them, and understood perfectly 
their character, condition and wants. As a means 
of making known God, and of enlightening, renew- 
ing, and sanctifying souls, it is, indeed, " vehy 
GOOD." It speaks as with a thousand tongues of the 
wisdom and goodness of its Author ; and in harmony 
with angelic strains, proclaims " Glory to God in 
the highest, on earth peace, good will to men." Its 
calm and heavenly stillness, when, after six days 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 173 

of labor and amusement, the activity, bustle, noise 
and tumult of worldliness die away, speaks of God. 
And as the Sabbath sun rises in his glory, and no 
man goes forth to labor, and all creation seems to 
listen, there is not an obedient child in the world, 
who knows the reason of this, and has been taught 
his duty, who does not feel more than he did before 
the Omnipresence of Jehovah ; and have a more 
operative conviction that he sees everything, and 
hears everything, and knows everything, and is of 
purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Earth becomes 
like the house of God, and the Sabbath like the gate 
of heaven. It seems to raise a ladder like that of 
Jacob, and to show him angels ascending and de- 
scending upon it. He can hardly forbear to say, 
" Surely God is in this place." For him, in keeping 
the Sabbath, so to play the fool as to say even in 
heart, " no God," is next to impossible. It would 
be like clinging to darkness when the sun shines. 
The darkness will flee away ; or if on any spot it 
stops, the light shows the contrast, and makes the 
darkness look darker. 

Many a one who, in the business and sports of 
the week, has forgotten his Maker or knowingly sin- 
ned against him, on the Sabbath has felt guilty. 
And if he would not repent, he wished to break its 
stillness, for it condemned him. Above, around, be- 



174 THE SABBATH 

neath, all seemed full of God. Whither could he 
go from his Spirit, or whither flee from his presence ? 
Should he go up into heaven, God is there, or de- 
scend into the depths, he is there ; should he take 
the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, there would his hand lead him, 
and his right hand would hold him. Or should he 
say that the darkness would cover him, the dark- 
ness would shine as the day : the darkness and the 
light are both alike to him. Hence to one who is 
wicked, knowingly and presumptuously wicked, and 
means to continue so, the Sabbath, with its sacred 
stillness and its holy duties, is a burden, and a bur- 
den often too great to bear. He throws himself 
down, and tries to forget all in sleep ; or he engages 
in worldly conversation or reading ; or walks abroad ; 
goes to the livery stable, and gets a horse and car- 
riage for a ride, or plunges into dissipation, vice and 
folly ; or if that is wickedness too gross, he sits un- 
easy, sighing, " O, what a weariness ;" " when will 
the Sabbath be gone, that we may buy, and sell, 
and get gain !" 

But in such cases, there has ordinarily been light 
long resisted ; or such persons have not been rightly 
taught to obey their parents, or instructed by them 
into the duty of obeying God. They have not been 
trained in the way they should go. It may be that the 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 175 

parents have not daily prayed with them, and for 
them ; have not from the beginning accustomed them 
to keep the Sabbath, or set them the example, and 
gone with them habitually to the house of God. Or 
they may not have duly felt their dependence on him, 
or sought the blessings of his Spirit, to render their 
efforts for the salvation of their children successful. 

But where parents do their duty, and children in 
affectionate kindness hearken to instruction, the 
Sabbath is " a delight ; the holy of the Lord, and 
honorable." Its stillness assists them in their con- 
templations, and in their efforts to learn his will. 
As they assemble around the family altar, and bow 
with their parents in adoration and praise, and think, 
it may be, of the loved one who once was with them, 
but is now in heaven, they anticipate " the rest which 
remaineth for the people of God." 

The cleanliness of person, the tidiness of apparel, 
as they implore the blessing and partake of the 
bounties of their heavenly Father ; the sound of the 
church-going bell, the congregating assembly, and 
the union in songs of praise ; the voice of prayer, 
the reading and hearing of the Scriptures, the ex- 
position by the minister of the oracles of God, and 
the instructions drawn from them which he com- 
municates to the people, giving to parents and to 
children, to old men and matrons, young men and 



176 THE SABBATH 

maidens, their portion in due season ; all are calcu- 
lated to make a salutary, an all-pervading, and a 
lasting impression— one that goes deep in the forma- 
tion of character, and which neither time nor eter- 
nity will efface. It is like the influence of a pure 
atmosphere upon physical health. It awakens and 
invigorates, deepens and renders permanent, moral 
and religious impressions. Like good seed on good 
ground, it springs up, and brings forth thirty, sixty, 
and an hundred-fold. Not a few have said in truth, 
of the place in which they worshipped with their 
parents, 

" I have been there and still would go, 
'Tis like a little heaven below ; 
At once they sing, at once they pray. 
They hear of heaven, and learn the way." 

Nor do they, trained up under that influence, merely 
"learn the way;" often, very often, they are in- 
clined to take it ; and they find it by experience to 
be a way of pleasantness, and a path of peace. It 
grows, as they proceed in it, brighter and brighter, 
till the light of the moon becomes like the light of 
the sun, and the light of the sun as the light of 
seven days. They obtain joy and gladness, and 
sorrow and sighing flee away. 

And even if, as is sometimes the case, while 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 177 

young, their father, protector, and guide is taken 
from them, their mother is a widow, sorrowful and 
desolate, and her children are fatherless; yet "a 
God of the widow and father of the fatherless," is 
Jehovah, in their habitation. Though their father l 
has forsaken them. He takes them up, and is often 
more to them than what he has taken from them ; 
and he does more for them than their earthly father 
could have done, or God would have done through 
him, had he lived. Through the influence of their 
mother, whom they are ni-^w accustomed to obey as 
the head of the family ; with v hom they unite in 
daily devotion, think of their fatner, and feel their 
need of a Father in lieaven ; with whom they go 
on the Sabbath to the house of God, and sit where 
their father sat, hear the pastor, and worship the 
God whom he loved, God has raised up, without the 
father, in every generation, some of the most worthy 
and most useful of the human family. 

The Sabbath was made for the fatherless and the 
widow, the orphan, and those who have no earthly 
helpers. It is the day for communing with the 
Father of their spirits, the former of their bodies, 
and the giver of all their blessings ; when he com- 
munes with them, manifests himself to them, and 
teaches them so to seek him that they shall not want 
any good thing. So with all the families of the 

Sab. Manual. 12 



178 THE SABBATH 

earth. Let parents govern their children, teach 
them the will of God, and set them a holy example ; 
let them keep the Sabbath and reverence the sanc- 
tuary, not forsaking the assembling of themselves 
together, but saying, in word and in deed, " O come, 
let us worship, let us kneel and bow down before 
Jehovah our Maker, for we are the sheep of his 
pasture, and the people of his hand :" let them 
conscientiously abstain from worldly business, tra- 
velling, and amusements, habitually attend public 
worship, and keep the day, from the beginning to 
the end, holy to the Lord ; let them hear and obey hia 
will, and, through his grace, the great object which 
he had in view in the establishment of families, will 
be accomplished. They will know him as their 
God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. They 
will be sanctified by his Spirit, and made meet to be 
partakers of the inheritance of the saints. Under 
this influence, and by the operation of his Spirit, 

" The Gospel bids the dead revive. 
Sinners obey the voice and live : 
Dry bones are raised and clothed afresh, 
And hearts of stone are turned to flesh." 

This is God's way to communicate to men, espe- 
cially to the young, that knowledge of himself and 
of his Son, which is life eternal ; causing that 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 179 

knowledge to be efficacious in giving such views, 
awakening such thoughts, inspiring such feelings, 
and leading to such conduct as shall promote excel- 
lence and usefulness on earth, and endless life and 
glory in heaven. 

INFLUENCE ON YOUNG MEN. 

Nor is the influence of the keeping of the Sab- 
bath confined to families, or to children while 
under the guidance of their parents. It accom- 
panies the youth when he leaves his father's house, 
and goes out, for life, into the world. In his plans 
and his efforts, his business and his cares, his dan- 
gers and his duties, his trials and his joys, it is a 
guardian angel ; whispering continually in his hear- 
ing, concerning intelligence' and virtue, truth and 
right — "This is the way, walk ye in it." "Keep 
thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law 
of thy mother; bind them continually upon thy 
heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou 
goest, it shall lead thee ; when thou sleepest, it shall 
keep thee ; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with 
thee." " The Lord giveth wisdom ; out of his 
mouth Cometh knowledge and understanding. He 
layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous, and is a 
buckler to them that walk uprightly." " Keep his 
commandments ; for length of days, and long life, 



180 THE SABBATH 

and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy 
and truth forsake thee : bind them about thy neck, 
write them upon the table of thy heart : so shalt 
thou find favor and good understanding in the 
sight of God and man." "In the way of right- 
eousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there 
is no death." 

A youth leaves his father's dwelling for a distant 
city. There he enters into business, and soon finds 
himself involved in all the labors, and cares, and 
anxieties of active life. Buoyant with hope, borne 
on by expectation, and flushed it may be with suc- 
cess, he presses forward in his enlarged and en- 
larging schemes of business, till he is in danger 
of being swallowed up in them. Occasionally for 
a moment he turns his eye towards home, and 
thinks of his father and his mother • but by no means 
with that frequency, steadiness, and intensity with 
which they think of him. They wonder how he 
does, when far away from the society of parents, 
brothers, and sisters • in company only with stran- 
gers or new-made acquaintance. They do not for- 
get him at the throne of mercy, in their private or 
family devotions, but commend him to the merci- 
ful guidance and keeping of Him from whom they 
received him, and to whom from his birth he was 
devoted. 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 181 

If a person arrive from that city, he is met with 

the anxious inquiry, " Do you know V ^' Yes, 

I know him well ; he resides but a few doors from 
me." "How is he doing?" "I believe well — 
very well." And suppose they hear in addition, 
" There is one thing, which I have observed, always 
promises well for a young man. He never opens 
his store, or goes down to it, on the Sabbath. He 
never goes out to ride, or visits places of amusement 
or dissipation on that day. He is always at church 
morning and evening." How safe, comparatively, 
those parents feel, and how delighted. They do 
not expect to hear anything very bad of their son. 
While he ke.eps the Sabbath, they hope and expect 
that the God of the Sabbath will keep him. For 
that is God's way to keep men, and even young 
men, in that most trying and dangerous of all periods, 
from the time when they leave their father^ s dioelUng 
and the endearments and restraints of home, to the 
time when they obtain that last best earthly gift — a 
prudent wife, from the Lord, and have a family of 
their own to throw its kind endearments around them^ 
and fill them with the riches of its Miss. 

But suppose they hear the following answer to 
their affectionate and anxious inquiry : " I do not 
know. I am not much acquainted with him. He 
does not reside near me, nor does he associate much 



182 THE SABBATH 

with our sort of people. There is one thing how. 
ever, which always makes me fearful about a young 
man — he does not keep the Sabbath, I observe, he 
sometimes opens his store on that day, or goes down 
to it. He som.etimes rides out, or goes to places of 
amusement. He is not in the habit of attending 
church." 

What will those parents hear next ? None can 
tell. It may be, that he has failed in business ; or 
that he has become intemperate, or licentious, or 
in other respects abandoned ; that he is a gambler, 
or a thief, or has committed some enormous crime. 

There is no safety to the young man who 
DOES not keep the Sabbath. He -has forsaken 
God, and turned from his ways. He is on the 
devil's ground, tempting that olcl murderer to tempt 
him, and provoking God to leave him in his hands 
to eat the fruit of his own way, and to be filled with 
his devices. Thus many a youth, before whom 
was opened the path of life, that " way of pleasant- 
ness," that "path of peace," has voluntarily turned 
aside and gone down to death. He had within him 
an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the liv- 
ing God. He may have uttered or echoed to him- 
self, the old serpent's lie, " Thou shalt not surely 
die;" or flattered himself that it was the part of 
manly independence to trample on the Sabbath ; to 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 183 

look upon the wine when it is red, and giveth its 
color in the cup ; or indulge those propensities 
which God has implanted in our nature for wise 
and beneficent purposes, but the gratification of 
which he Jms restricted to the limits which his wisdom 
and goodness have prescribed, and which he has sol- 
emnly commanded should he confined to married life. 
In defiance or forgetfulness of God, the heedless 
youth may have chosen — foolishly, meanly, and 
wickedly chosen — to follow her, " whose mouth is 
smoother than oil, but whose end is bitter as worm- 
wood ;^^ " whose feet go down to death, and whose 
steps take hold on hell;" "whose house inclineth 
unto death, and her paths unto the dead;" whoso 
" house is the way to hell, leading down to the 
chambers of death." But he will find that as the 
fishes are caught in an evil net, and as birds are 
caught in a snare, so he has been taken by the de- 
stroyer, and snared with a bait, which " at the last 
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." 
Her voice was " the poison of dragons, and the cruel 
venom of asps :" " the adder's poison was under her 
lips." " The dead are there, and her guests are in 
the depths of hell." " None that go in unto her return 
again, neither take they hold of the path of life." 

Let any man, young or old, despise or trample on 
Marriage, that great fundamental institution which 



184 THE SABBATH 

God established to secure and perpetuate the ex^tstence 
and social purity of our race, and through which to 
make known himself and manifest his goodness to 
man; and lei him seek those gratifications without^ 
which it is his revealed will, should he enjoyed only 
within its sacred enclosure : or let him openly and 
presumptuously neglect and desecrate the Sabbath, 
that other great and fundamental institution which, like 
marriage, God estahlished at the Creation, as an help 
meet for families, and through whose hallowed influ- 
ences they can alone accomplish the end for which they 
were estahlished; and as certainly as God reigns in 
heaven, who judgeih upon the earth, such men, even 
here, will he visited with his curse. He has estab- 
lished laws, fixed as the pillars of his throne, which 
no mortal can annul or evade, by which those sins, 
continued, will work out destruction. 

If they do not lead, as is often the case, to other 
gross outward crimes, which bring the culprit to an 
untimely end, they will keep him away, ordinarily, 
from the remedial influences of the Gospel, and all 
the appointed means of grace, or will counteract 
their efficacy and prevent their saving effects— an 
evil infinitely greater than the loss of all merely 
earthly things. Such men may expect to live in 
impenitence, and in impenitence to die : in hardness 
of heart and blindness of mind to go to the judg- 



A FAMILY INSTITUTION. 185 

ment, and under accumulated treasures of wrath to 
sink to an awfully aggravated condemnation. 

But let a man, even a young man, in this most 
perilous period of his probation, keep in mind the 
lessons of heavenly wisdom : let him hear God say, 
" Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and 
be quiet from the fear of evil ;" and to the inquiry 
" Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ?" 
let him hear his answer, " By taking heed thereto 
according to thy word:" let him treat the ward 
of God as "a lamp to liis feet, and a light to his 
path ;" let him keep the Sabbath day holy, as a day 
of worship and of spiritual improvement : let him 
regard marriage as the institution of God, a holy 
union of one man with one woman for life ; let him 
seek of the Lord and use proper means to obtain a 
suitable companion for himself, and enter into that 
state early after he is settled for life in his appropri- 
ate business, and he will find that he has indeed, be- 
yond what he could in any other course, " obtained 
favor of the Lord." He will know from their 
blessed effects, that both Marriage and the Sab- 
bath were " made for man," and are conducive, in 
the highest degree, to his present and future good, 
and the good of all who may feel his influence. 
While those who despise either of these institutions 
despise their own mercies, contemn the wisdom and 



186 THE SABBATH. 

goodness of Jehovah, and oppose the advancement 
of his glory and the great interests of the universe. 
But they who regard these institutions, and treat 
them according to the revealed will of God, will 
more and more taste and see continually of his wis- 
dom and goodness, and will become co-workers with 
him in promoting the great object for which he 
stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations 
of the earth, made man, gave his Son as a Saviour, 
and the Holy Spirit as a Sanctifier, and appointed 
the preaching and ordinances of the Gospel, and is 
carrying on all his operations in the kingdoms of 
nature, providence, and grace. 

And when the final results shall be unfolded, and 
great voices shall be heard, as the voice of many 
waters and of mighty thunderings, from multitudes 
that no man can number, crying, " Glory to God in 
the highest," they will be witnesses of his '^ good 
will to men/' and will mingle their ascriptions with 
those of all who have believed on and obeyed him, 

of BLESSING, AND HONOR, AND GLORY, AND POWER, 

UNTO Him that sitteth on the throne, and 
UNTO THE Lamb forever and ever. 



No. IV# 



THE PROPER MODE OF KEEPING THE SABBATH. 

In the first number of the Sabbatli Manual, it 
was shown that the Sabbath is founded on natural 
laws, and that the command in the decalogue to 
remember and keep it holy, is an expression, not 
merely of the will of God, but also of the moral 
obligation which arises from the nature and relations 
of things. 

In the second number it was shown that God, in 
his word, and by his providence, has clearly desig- 
nated the first day of the week as the day to be 
observed as the Christian Sabbath, from the resur- 
rection of Christ to the end of the world. Those 
passages in the New Testament which speak of 
Sabbaths as being done away, refer, as the connec- 
tion shows, not to the weekly Sabbaths of the moral 
law, but to the annual sabbaths of the ceremonial 
law. Hence, they are placed by the Lawgiver, not 



188 THE SABBATH. 

with moral precepts, like *' Thou shalt not kill," and 
"Thou shalt not steal/' but with outward ceremo- 
nies, such as meats and drinks, fast- days and feast- 
days, new moons, divers washings, and carnal, that 
is, outward ceremonial ordinances. These never 
were binding except on the Jews, and not on them 
till they were commanded, and then only till the 
resurrection of Christ and the establishment of the 
Gospel dispensation. The weekly Sabbath was made 
for man, was established at the creation, and will be 
of sacred, moral, and religious obligation upon all 
who shall know the will of God to the end of time. 

In the third number it was shown that the Sab- 
bath is a FAMILY INSTITUTION. It was designed by 
God to enable parents rightly to educate their chil- 
dren, to train them up in the way they should go, 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that 
they may serve him on earth, and enjoy him in 
heaven. 

Like the institution of marriage, it was coeval with 
the creation, and was in operation hundreds of years 
before the Jewish dispensation was established. Like 
marriage, it has outlived all past dispensations, and 
will go down as a help-meet for the family, to bless the 
children, and through them the church and the world 
to all generations. It will be, also, what it was estab- 
lished to be, a perpetual sign between God and his 
people, that, in the keeping of it, they may be known 



A FAMLY INSTITUTION. 189 

as his people, the worshippers of Jehovah, the one 
living and true God ; who, in six days, made the 
heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, 
and on the Sabbath rested from his labors ; as, in 
imitation of his example, aiid obedience to his com- 
mands, they do from theirs. 

The keeping of the Sabbath is a public demon- 
stration that they are not worshippers of idols, or any 
of the multitudes of false gods which many people 
worship; and that they do not belong to the people 
~who worship no God, and thus show that they are 
without God, and without that hope which purifies 
the soul, and will be as an anchor, sure and steadfast, 
and not as the spider's web, at the giving up of the 
ghost. But they are the people who worship Je- 
hovah. They show this by keeping his Sabbath> 
and through the influence of its means of grace, 
attendance upon which is a part of the proper mode 
of keeping it, they know him as their God, and the 
God of their children, and manifest this to the world. 

This influence of keeping the Sabbath, though it 
begins in the family, does not stop there. It goes 
out with the youth when he leaves his father's house 
and engages in the active duties of life. It is felt 
in the church and on the state, as one grand means 
of that godliness which is profitable unto all things, 
having promise of the life that now is, and also of 
that which is to come. Under its influence, not only 



190 THE SABBATH. 

individuals and families, but states and nations are 
permanently prosperous, useful, and happy. 

" If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, 
from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call 
the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honor- 
able ; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, 
nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine 
own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the 
Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high 
places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage 
of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord 
hath spoken it/* Isa. 58: 13, 14. The great prin- 
ciples, by the application of which these blessings 
would be secured, are still in operation, and will 
secure to those who rightly keep the Sabbath similar 
blessings in all countries and in all ages. 

In view of the above truths, a momentous question 
arises, and one of deep personal interest to every 
human being, viz. 

"What is the proper mode of keeping the Sab- 
bath ? In what manner must the day be kept, in 
order most fully to promote its objects, and 
obtain its benefits ? 

In order rightly to answer this question, we must 
understand what are the objects of the Sabbath, and 
the manner in which it is the will of God that men 
should keep it. 



MODE OF OBSERVANCE. 191 

The great object of the Sabbath is to make known 
Jehovah, to perpetuate the acknowledgment and 
worship of him, and to promote the spiritual and 
religious interests of men. 

The manner in which it is to be kept, in order 
most fully to accomplish these objects, is indicated 
by the directions of God in the Scriptures. Some 
of these directions are the following, viz. 

'* Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six 
days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work : but the 
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in 
it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 
thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is with- 
in thy gates," that is, under thy control. "For in 
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : 
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and 
hallowed it.'* That is, he set it apart from other 
days, to be devoted, not to secular, but to sacred 
purposes. Ex. 20:8-11. 

Hence his directions, Deut. 5 : 12-15, " Keep the 
Sabbath-day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God 
hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labor, 
and do all thy work ; but the seventh day,'' which 
Is the day that comes next to the sixth working 
day, '' is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it 
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 



X9S THE SABBATH. 

tliy daughter, nor tliy man-servant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy 
cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates ; 
that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest 
as well as thou.^^ 

Servants are creatures of God as well as masters. 
They are also sinners, and need his grace. They 
have been redeemed by the blood of his Son, and 
may obtain salvation through him. They ar6 bound, 
on the Sabbath, to unite with others in acknowledge 
ing and worshipping Jehovah, and in promoting their 
own spiritual good, and that of their fellow-men. 
Of course, it is their duty and their right to rest 
from labor. Yet, as they are in some respects de- 
pendent upon, and under the control of others, they 
may be urged, and placed under peculiar tempta- 
tions to continue their work. God, who is no re- 
specter of persons, and regards the souls of servants 
as well as masters, has, therefore, especially noticed 
their case. It is worthy of attention that the reason 
he gives why masters, and parents, •and children, 
and cattle, and strangers, should rest, is, that the 
servants may rest also. It is, there/ore, evidently 
his will that all classes of persons should rest from 
worldly business on the Sabbath. 

It is equally plain that this is his will with regard 
to BEASTS OF BURDEN. It manifests the kindness of 



GENERAL REST FROM TOIL. 193 

Jehovah, and also his intention that none should be 
forced to invade the sacredness of the Sabbath, that 
he should mention thus particularly the case of ser- 
vants and of cattle. 

Though heaven and the heaven of heavens 
cannot contain him, and he has ten thousand times 
ten thousand round about him, he does not forget 
the poor or the dumb. ISTot a servant escapes his 
notice, nor a beast is beneath his care. He never 
for a moment overlooks the defenceless, who cannot 
protect themselves, or plead their own cause. He 
compassionates their condition, and sympathizes with 
their wants. When, after six days of labor, they 
need, in addition to the rest of the nights, the rest 
also of one day, he guarantees it to them. And it 
was with reference to them, as well as others, that 
he made the Sabbath, set it apart for sacred pur- 
poses, gave it to men, forbade them to labor during 
its hours, and commanded them to keep it holy. 

To keep the Sahhath-day, then, in a proper man- 
ner , oxen and owner s, servants and masters, children 
and parents, workmen and employers, sojourners and 
citizens, all, on this day, must rest from worldly 
"business, except so far as works of necessary mercy, 
and the best discharge of the appropriate duties of the 
Sabbath as a holy day, may require, 

*' Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the 
seventh thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass 

Sab. Manual. 13 



W- 



194 THE SABBATH. 



may rest, and the son of tliy handmaid, and the 
stranger, may be refreshed." Ex. 23 : 12. Such is 
the nature of both man and beast, that, after six days 
of labor with suitable diligence, their most healthy 
refreshment — -that which is needful for their great- 
est comfort and usefulness — that which will be most 
for the honor of God and the good of the world — 
requires one day of rest. They have a right to it, 
and one which does not come from men, or from 
human governments, but from God. 'No man can 
knowingly, under ordinary circumstances, or for pur- 
poses of gain, deprive them of it without great guilt 
It is injustice towards the creature, and rebellion 
against the Creator. 

'' Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh 
day thou shalt rest : in earing-time and in harvest," 
those seasons when men are most urgently pressed, 
and most strongly tempted to continue their em- 
ployments, *'thou shalt rest." Exod. 34 : 21. 

'' Six days may work be done, but the seventh is 
the day of rest, hol^/ to the Lord. Whosoever doeth 
any work shall surely be put to death." Exod. 
31 :15. 

Death to the open, presumptuous Sabbath-break- 
er, by the hand of the magistrate, was a penalty in 
force among the Jews while God was their civil 
ruler. It was adopted by his direction, and was 
designed to make them a peculiar people, and keep 



THE PENALTY OF DEATH. 193 

them so till the death of Christ. But it was not 
designed to be binding on other people, or on them 
after the close of the Jewish dispensation. 

Of course it was not, like the Sabbath law, writ- 
ten by the finger of God on the tables of stone, or 
put in the decalogue with the moral laws. It did 
not belong there, as it was not to be a permanent 
regulation. But the Sdbhath laiu did belong there. 
It was, like those associates, a moral law. It ex- 
pressed an obligation which grows out of the nature 
of things, and which will continue to be binding to 
the end of the world. 

Of course it was placed in the moral code, in ac- 
cordance with that great law maxim, " JSfoscitur a 
sociis:^^ "it is known by its associates.'' Like them, 
it is a moral, permanent, universal law ; while the 
penalty — death by the hand of the civil magistrate — 
was adapted to the object which was then to be ac- 
complished, in making the Jews a peculiar people. 
Of course, it was placed in the ceremonial code, 
among other local and temporary regulations, and 
was itself local and temporary. The fourth com- 
mandment was, in its nature and in its penalty, like 
the first commandment and the fifth. Those were 
both moral laws of perpetual obligation. Both had 
a civil penalty annexed to them, which was only of 
local and temporary application. The man that set 
up an idol, and attempted to induce the people to 



196 THE SABBATH. 

worship it, whether he succeeded or not, and the 
son that openly and presumptuously rebelled against 
his father, were, by God's direction, put to death by 
the magistrate. But those penalties were not writ- 
ten on the tables of stone, nor placed in the per- 
manent moral code ; while the laws for the violation 
of which death was the penalty, were placed there. 
They belonged there ; they are there now ; and, till 
heaven and earth pass away, they will remain there, 
and bind all who know them, to the end of time. 
So with the fourth commandment. It is like its 
associates, in being a moral, permanent, universal 
law ; and also in its violation having had, for a time, 
by God's special direction, death as its civil penalty. 

Because the obhgation to inflict that civil penalty 
is done away, some have contended that the obliga- 
tion to keep the command is done away. This is a 
great mistake. The law is one thing, and stands 
upon its own immovable basis— the civil penalty, in- 
troduced for a time to accomplish a special purpose, 
is a very different thing, and may be, or may not be, 
connected with it, according to the appointment of 
God. As well might men argue that the first com- 
mand and the fifth command are not binding, because 
the civil penalty once attached to them is done away. 

The civil penalty for theft in some countries has 
been death. That penalty has afterwards been ab- 
rogated. But are the people of those countries re- 



THE LAWS OF JEHOVAH. 197 

leased, on that account, from their obligation to obey 
the command, *^ Thow shall not steal ?'^ 

The civil penalty attached by God, for a time, to 
the violation of moral laws, showed how essential he 
considered the observance of those laws to the civil, 
as well as moral welfare of a people. The record 
of that fact shows the same now, as far as that 
record is known. Though sentence against a similar 
evil work is not executed so speedily now as it was 
then, yet, as the Lawgiver is the same, and the moral 
obligation to keep the statute the same, it is certain, 
that if the crime be not forsaken, judgment in due 
time will come, and destruction will follow. 

'' Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my 
sanctuary. I am the Lord." Lev. 26 : 2. '^Six 
days may work be done ; but the seventh day is the 
Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation," or public as- 
sembling. ''Ye shall do no work: it is the Sabbath 
of the Lord." Lev. 23 : 3. 

" Thus saith Jehovah : Take heed to yourselves, 
and bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring 
it in by the gates of Jerusalem." Jer. 17 : 21, 
etc. To bear a burden is a phrase for worldly 
business, especially mercantile business, the remov- 
ing of goods from one place to another. " Neither 
carry forth a burden out of your houses on the 
Sabbath-day." The same principle applies to ware- 



198 THE SABBATH. 

houses, stores, wharves, raHroad depots, and all 
places where men transact worldly business. *' Nei- 
ther do 3^e any work." Works of necessary mercy, 
and those which are needful for the proper discharge 
of the appropriate duties of the Sabbath, are of 
course excepted. *'But hallow ye the Sabbath-day, 
as I commanded your fathers.'* That is, keep the 
Sabbath as a sacred day, in distinction from secular 
days, according to the fourth command, which has 
ever formed a part of the moral code, and is not 
made void, but is established by the Gospel. 

" But they," their fathers, '' obeyed not " his 
command with regard to the Sabbath, " neither in- 
clined their ear." To incline one's ear, is a biblical 
phrase for a desire to hear and be instructed. It is 
taken from the well-known fact, that when a person 
is spoken to, if he wishes to hear and be instructed, 
he inclines his ear towards the sound, that he may 
hear it more distinctly, and better understand the 
meaning. But they who devoted the Sabbath to 
worldly business, "inclined not;" showing that they 
did not wish to hear the voice of Jehovah, or to 
have him instruct them. This is the case with all 
persons who, for purposes of gain or pleasure, de- 
vote the Sabbath to worldly business, travelling, or 
amusement. They show that they do not wish to 
hear God, or to have him instruct them. Their 
conduct is understood in heaven to mean, " Depart 



BLESSINGS ON ITS OBSERVANCE. 199 

from us: we desire not tlie knowledge of thy ways/' 
That is its real meaning. Hence, they do not as- 
semble in those places where God is worshipped, 
and where, through the instrumentalities of his ap- 
pointment, he makes known his will. They act out 
the principle, '^Not thy will, but mine, be done." 

Thus the Jewish fathers "made their necks stiff, 
that they might not hear nor receive instruction." 
So it is with Sabbath-breakers now. Their conduct 
says, " It is a vain thing to serve the Lord." This 
is utterly false, and the practice of this falsehood 
tends to produce a lying spirit among men ; as dis- 
honesty towards God tends to produce dishonesty 
towards men. Hence the fact, that more than ten 
times as many Sabbath-breakers are convicts in 
state prisons, as men who have uniformly and con- 
scientiously ''remembered the Sabbath-day, and 
kept it holy." Robbing God tends to produce rob- 
bery and other heinous crimes among men. On the 
other hand, honesty towards God produces honesty 
towards men, and tends to secure all needful bless- 
ings for this life and the life to come. Hence the 
declaration, Jer. 17 : 24, 25, ''It shall come to pass, 
if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith Jehovah, to 
bring in no burdens through the gates of this city 
on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sabbath-day, to 
do no work therein ; then shall there enter into the 
gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the 



200 THE SABBATH. 

throne of David " — they would have lawful and good 
rulers, who would fear God, and promote the best 
interests of the people — '' riding in chariots and on 
horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, 
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." That is, the 
rulers and people would be wealthy, and the nation 
be in a prosperous condition. " And this city shall 
remain for ever." Their blessings would be perma- 
nent. Instead of being the means of corruption 
and consequent ruin, they would render the people 
grateful to the Giver, more obedient and virtuous, 
and thus they would be perpetuated as long as the 
sun and moon should endure. 

'' They shall come from the cities of Judah, and 
the places about Jerusalem," the central parts of the 
country, '*and from the land of Benjamin," the 
east, "and from the plain," the west, "from the 
mountains," the north, "and from the south," from 
all parts of the kingdom, should they keep the Sab- 
bath, they would come together, " bringing burnt- 
offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and in- 
cense, and bringing sacrifices of praise unto the 
house of the Lord." They would be not only a 
very prosperous, but a very pious people ; and this 
they would show, not only by resting from worldly 
employments on the Sabbath, but also by reverenc- 
ing the sanctuary. They would assemble together 
according to God's appointment, and offer to him 



EFFECTS OF VIOLATING. 201 

their united, humble, and grateful devotion. He 
would graciously accept them, and grant them 
abundantly and permanently the blessings of his 
favor. 

Here is solved the momentous question with regard 
to the purity and permanence of free institutions. 

How can a nation be very prosperous, and at the 
same time pure and holy ? How can they promote 
that intelligence and virtue which are essential to 
the purity and permanence of free institutions, and 
thus perpetuate their blessings ? By keeping holy 
the Sabbath-day. Let them confine their secular 
business and cares, their travelling and amusements, 
to six days in a week, and sacredly devote the Sab- 
bath to the worship of God and the promotion of 
the spiritual good of men, and the blessings of the 
Lord of the Sabbath, in copious abundance, will 
continue to descend upon them. Their prosperity, 
instead of rendering them more wicked through its 
abuse, and ripening them for ruin, will make them 
more holy, and, through grace, fit them for per- 
manent blessings on earth, and for endless life in 
heaven. 

** But, if ye will not hearken unto me,'' saith Je- 
hovah, *'to hallow," that is, keep holy, "the Sab- 
bath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering 
in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day, 
then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it 



202 THE SABBATH. 

shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall 
not be quenched.'^ 

Such are the representations of God in the Scrip- 
tures concerning his will with regard to the keeping 
of the Sabbath. They show most clearly that it is 
his will, that all men should rest from their labors, 
and keep the day holy. Yet his ancient people did 
not, and would not, thus keep the Sabbath. They 
devoted it to worldly business and pleasures. He, 
according to his threatening, kindled a fire, or in his 
providence suffered one to be kindled, in their pal- 
aces, which they could not quench. Their city was 
made a desolation, and the inhabitants were carried 
into captivity, according to his declaration : '' I will 
scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a 
sword after you. Your land shall be desolate, and 
your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her 
Sabbaths : as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in 
your enemies' country, even then shall the land rest, 
and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth deso- 
late it shall rest, because it did not rest in your 
Sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.'* Lev. 26 : 33, 
etc. 

After their return from captivity, and their settle- 
ment in their own land, when they began again to 
break the Sabbath, Nehemiah, their leader, who 
knew the cause of their captivity, said to them, 
** What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane 



REASONS FOR ITS OBSERVANCE. 203 

the Sabbath-day ? Did not your fathers thus, and 
did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and 
upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon 
Israel by profaning the Sabbath-day.'' ISTehemiah 
13: 17, 18. 

Thus he represents the profanation of the Sab- 
bath as the grand cause of their ruin ; as the prophet 
Jeremiah had foretold that it would be. Inspired 
men, speaking and writing under the direction of 
the Holy Ghost, represent abstinence from worldly 
business, cares, and pleasures on the Sabbath, and 
the keeping of the day holy to the Lord, as the 
great means of permanent temporal and spiritual 
prosperity, and the desecration of the Sabbath as 
the sure cause of ruin. 

What is the reason of this ? Why is the keeping 
of the Sabbath so vital to human welfare ? Because 
without it men cannot act in accordance with the 
nature of things as manifested in creation, provi- 
dence, and grace. They cannot obey the revelation 
of God's will, or secure the blessings of his favor. 
If they continue to disobey him with regard to the 
Sabbath, they will disobey him in other things, and 
thus draw down upon them his curse. And if they 
do obey him in this, they will, under his blessing, 
be led to obey him in other things. The Sabbath- 
keeping people, according to the will of God, will 
be an obedient people. Of course they will be a 



204 THE SABBATH. 

holy, a useful, a happy people. Keeping the Sab- 
bath-day holy tends to make them holy. Such is 
the nature of men, such the nature of the Sabbath, 
and such the blessing which the Lord of the Sabbath 
bestows upon those who, out of regard to him, keep 
it holy, that temporal and spiritual prosperity are 
its sure results. " The Sabbath was made for man,'' 
in order that, by the keeping of it, he might be instru- 
mental, through grace, in securing these blessings. 

On the other hand, as the abuse of the best things 
is productive of the greatest evils, the desecration 
of the Sabbath tends to infinite mischief. It ope- 
rates on the character like the poisoning of the at- 
mosphere on bodily health. It is like the letting 
out of great waters, to flow over fruitful fields, be- 
come stagnant and putrid, and spread disease, con- 
tagion, and death through the land. 

Hence, it is spoken of as the sum of wickedness, 
the procuring cause and sure precursor of personal 
and national ruin. 

But it is asked, *' Did not our Saviour teach a 
different doctrine with regard to the lawfulness of 
worldly business and amusements on the Sabbath ? 
Did he not teach that the Sabbath law, if not abro- 
gated, is relaxed in its obligations, and that, if men 
find it inconvenient or expensive to rest on that day, 
they are at liberty to pursue their business ?" No : 



TEACHING OF THE SAVIOUR. 205 

he tauglit no such doctrine; nor did he imply, in 
any thing he said or did, that the obhgations to keep 
the Sabbath as a holy day were, or under the Gos- 
pel would be, diminished. In proof of this, let us 
examine his teaching and conduct with regard to the 
Sabbath. 

" Jesus went on the Sabbath-day through the 
corn, and his disciples were an hungered, and began 
to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat." Matt. 12:1, 
etc. They were going, it is supposed, to public 
worship. The word rendered corn is a general name 
for grain. It might have been barley, or some other 
grain. The disciples might not have had their usual 
meal, and been annoyed with hunger. They there- 
fore took some heads of grain, rubbed out the kernels 
in their hands, and ate them, as any one might have 
done imder like circumstances, on any day. The 
Pharisees, a sect among the Jews, idolatrously de- 
voted to their own traditions, who tithed mint, 
anise, and cummin, and omitted the weightier mat- 
ters of the law — ^judgment, mercy, and faith — ob- 
jected to the conduct of the disciples, and said to 
Jesus, '' Why do thy disciples do that which is not 
lawful on the Sabbath-day ?" They had not done 
what was not lawful. What they had done was 
allowed in the Scriptures. It was contrary to the 
traditions of the Pharisees, but it was not contrary 
to the law of God. 



206 THE SABBATH. 

He had said, ''When thou comest into the stand* 
ing corn of thy neighbor, then mayest thou pluck 
the ears with thy hand ; but thou shalt not move a 
sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn/' Under 
the circumstances in which they were placed, it was 
lawful to do this on the Sabbath. This Jesus show- 
ed, not by intimating that the Sabbath would be 
abrogated or relaxed, but by appealing, in justifica- 
tion of their conduct, to the Bible, and the example 
of holy men. '' Have ye not read what David did, 
when he was an hungered, and they that were with 
him ; how he went into the house of God, and did 
cat the shew-bread, which it was not lawful for him 
to eat, neither for them that were with him,'' that 
is, on ordinary occasions, ''but only for the priests?" 
And " have ye not read in the law, how that on the 
Sabbath-days the priests in the temple profane the 
Sabbath, and are blameless?" That is, they do 
what would be profanation, if it were done for sec- 
ular purposes, and not required by the appropriate 
duties of the Sabbath. But the Sabbath has always 
permitted the satisfying of hunger, and the perform- 
ance of such labor as the duties of the Sabbath re- 
quire. Of course David, and the priests, and the 
disciples, had done nothing improper. The blame- 
less example of the former fully justified the latter, 
and the Pharisees had no good reason for complaint. 
Nor have modern Sabbath-breakers any better rea- 



TEACHING OF THE SAVIOUR 207 

son for thinking that Jesus intimated that the obhga- 
tions of the Sabbath law are done away or diminish- 
ed ; or for appeaUng to his instructions or example 
to justify themselves in secular business, travelling, 
or amusement on the Sabbath. He teaches no such 
doctrine. 

He added, "But I say unto you, in this place is 
one greater than the temple. If ye had known what 
this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye 
would not have condemned the guiltless ;'' as they had 
done in condemning his disciples. '' For the Son of 
man," said he, meaning himself, *'is Lord even of the 
Sabbath-day.'' If it was proper for David and his 
men, when they were hungry, to eat even the shew- 
bread, which ordinarily it was not proper for any to 
eat except the priests, much more was it proper for 
his disciples, when they were hungry, to eat common 
grain. And if it was proper for the priests on the 
Sabbath to do all that was needful to prepare and 
offer the sacrifices in the temple, as it evidently was, 
much more was it proper for his disciples, in minis- 
tering unto him who was greater than the temple, 
in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead 
bodily, to do what was needful for that purpose. 
The objection of the Pharisees was therefore ground- 
less. It only showed their ignorance of what the 
Sabbath law and the example of holy men always 
sanctioned. Had they been as well acquainted with 



208 THE SABBATH. 

the spirit of tlie Scriptures as they ought to have 
been, they would have known this, and not con- 
demned Jesus or his disciples. Such is the argu- 
ment of our Saviour, and such the instruction which 
it affords us. But not a word did he utter, not 
an intimation did he give, that the Sabbath law 
would be abrogated or relaxed. The circumstances 
did not require this ; for his disciples had done 
nothing amiss. This he clearly showed ; and, but 
for the ignorance of the Pharisees, or their malice, 
or both, they would have seen it. 

" And when he departed, he went into their syn- 
agogue. And behold, there was a man which had 
his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, 
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day ? that they 
might accuse him'^ Here was the spring of their 
inquiry. They did not ask for information, but to 
obtain grounds of accusation. "He answered and 
said. What man shall there be among you that shall 
have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sab- 
bath-day, will he not lay hold of it, and lift it out ?" 
They knew that any man would : they would do it 
themselves. He added, '' How much better, then, 
is a man than a sheep ?" If it is proper to restore 
a sheep on the Sabbath, how much more proper to 
restore a man. He therefore said to the man, 
*' Stretch forth thine hand.'' He did so, " and it 
was restored whole, hke as the other." *' Then the 



TEACHING OF THE SAVIOUR. 209 

Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, 
how they might destroy hijn.^' But there was no good 
reason why they should do this. He had said noth- 
ing about the Sabbath being done away, or the ob- 
ligation to keep it being relaxed. He had said some- 
thing which was adapted to correct their errors, 
while all his sayings and doings had been in perfect 
accordance with the meaning and spirit of the fourth 
commandment. 

The next case which we will examine is recorded, 
Luke 13 : 11, etc. He was teaching in one of their 
synagogues, or places of public worship, as his cus- 
tom was, on the Sabbath. ** And there was a woman 
who had had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, 
and was bowed together, and could in nowise lift 
up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her 
to him, and said, Woman, thou art loosed from thine 
infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and im- 
mediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 
And the ruler of the synagogue answered with in- 
diornation, because that Jesus had healed on the 
Sabbath-day, and said to the people. There are six 
days in which men ought to work : in them, there- 
fore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath- 
day :'* as if healing were a work which was forbid- 
den by the fourth commandment ; whereas the fact 
was, it was forbidden only by their traditions. Had 
they felt and acted rightly, they would have known 



:gl0 THE SABBATH. 

this. Our Lord therefpre answered and saidy " Thou 

hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath 
loose his ox or his ass, and lead him away to water- 
ing V No doubt they did : it was proper that they 
should. And if it was proper to relieve a beast 
from the inconvenience of thirst, it was proper to 
relieve this woman, when it could be. done with much 
greater ease, and with far less labor. ^* Ought not 
this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whoni 
Satan hatk bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be 
loosed from that bond on the Sabbath-day ? And 
when he had said these things, all his adversaries 
were ashamed." Well they might be, for they were 
engaged in a shameful business, and were prosecut- 
ing it in a shameful way. But '' the people rejoiced 
for all the glorious things that were done by him.'' 
They rejoiced, not because he was breaking the 
Sabbath, as the Pharisees contended, and as Sab- 
bath-breakers now contend, but because, in perfect 
accordance with the Old Testament, he was doing 
well in relieving distress. Wherefore he said, *' It 
is lawful to do well on the Sabbath- day.'' 

Equally unreasonable were his accusers, and equal- 
ly wise and good was his conduct at the pool of 
Bethesda, John 5 : 2, etc. " A certain man was 
there, who had had an infirmity thirty and eight 
years. Jesus saw him, and knew that he had been 
a long time in that condition, and he said to him, 



TEACHING OP THE SAVIOUR. 211 

Wilt thou be made whole ? The impotent man an- 
swered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is 
troubled, to put me into the pool : but while I am 
coming, another steppeth down before. For an angel 
went down at a certain time into the pool, and trou- 
bled the water, and whosoever then first stepped in 
was healed of whatsoever disease he had. Jesus saith 
to him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. Immediately 
the man rose, took up his bed, and departed. The 
same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said 
to him that was cured. It is not lawful for thee to 
carry thy bed. He answered. He that made me whole, 
the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 
They asked him. What man is that which said unto 
thee, Take up thy bed, and walk ? But he knew not 
who it was ; for Jesus had removed himself away, a 
multitude being in that place." The man went up to 
the temple, where Jesus found him, and said unto 
him, " Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, 
lest a worse thing come upon thee.'* The man de- 
parted, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had 
made him whole. Therefore the Jews persecuted 
Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he had done 
these things on the Sabbath-day. But they had no 
good reason for seeking to kill him ; for the Sabbath 
law did not forbid what he had done. It was not 
work, or labor, or worldly business, in the sense 
which was forbidden in the fourth commandment. 



212 THE SABBATH. 

It was bestowing money upon the needy, in the sense 
of the declaration of Jehovah, " I will have mercy, 
and not sacrifice," and it was part of that ''doing 
well" which was always lawful on the Sabbath. 

Nor was the carrying of the couch by the man 
that was healed, carrying a burden in the sense 
which was forbidden. That was bearing burdens, 
goods, or produce, in the prosecution of worldly 
business, for purposes of gain or pleasure ; not, at 
the command of the Divine Saviour, carrying a 
couch in evidence of having been by him miracu- 
lously healed of a protracted disease. This was 
perfectly consistent with the most intelligent and 
sacred regard to the Sabbath. And when the facts 
were known, it was not adapted in the least to relax 
a regard for the day, or to indicate that the Sabbath 
was ever to be devoted to worldly concerns. So 
with all that Jesus ever said or did. He came, not 
to abolish or lower any part of the moral law, but 
to fulfil it, rightly to explain it, and faithfully to 
obey and apply it. In this, he set an example that 
we should walk in his steps. And till heaven and 
earth pass away, not a jot or tittle of the moral law 
will fail. The faithful preaching of the Gospel, in- 
stead of making any part of it void, always establishes 
it. This Paul declares concerning his preaching, and 
it may be declared in truth concerning the preaching 
and the writings of all men who are like him. 



TEACHING OF THE SAVIOUR. 213 

But if Jesus Christ did not break tlie Sabbath, 
and did not say or do any thing which showed that 
it would be abohshed, or the obligation to keep it 
holy be relaxed, why were the Pharisees so con- 
stantly at variance with him on this subject ; and 
v/hy did they so often accuse him of breaking the 
Sabbath ? Because they hated him, and because he 
violated their traditions about the Sabbath, The 
fact was, they had added to the Sabbath law, as 
they had to other laws, numerous traditions of their 
own, and they regarded these more than they did 
the law itself. Thus they often made void the law 
through their traditions. These traditions Jesus dis- 
regarded, and showed by words and deeds that they 
were vain. He thus demonstrated that they were 
false teachers ; blind leaders of the blind. This 
greatly enraged them, and led them to watch occa- 
sions of accusation against him. 

For instance : they said, that if a son should say 
of that portion of property with which he ought to 
assist his parents, ' It is corban,' that is, a gift de- 
voted to the Lord, he was released from his obliga- 
tion to assist them, though God had commanded him 
to do it. Thus they made void the law of God 
through their traditions. So it was w^ith the fourth 
commandment. They had added to it numerous 
and cumbrous errors, which tended to lead the mind 
to a blind and superstitious regard for them, and to 



214 THE SABBATH. 

overlook and disregard the spiritual meaning and 
real object of the Sabbath. 

They enumerated about forty primary works, 
which they said were forbidden to be done on the 
Sabbath. Under each of these were numerous sec- 
ondary works, which they said were also forbidden. 
These were so explained as to include works ot 
mercy performed by Jesus, and thus to make him a 
Sabbath-breaker. Hence, they said he could not be 
the Messiah, for he did not, in the sense of their 
traditions, keep the Sabbath. 

Among the primary works which were forbidden, 
were ploughing, sowing, reaping, winnowing, clean- 
ing, grinding, etc. Under the head of grinding was 
included the breaking or dividing of things which 
were before united. Of course, when the disciples 
broke off the heads of grain, and rubbed out the 
kernels in their hands, and ate them, it was a divid- 
ing of things which were before united, a species of 
grinding, which was, in their view, forbidden, and 
unlawful on the Sabbath-day. 

Another of their traditions was, that, as thresh- 
ing on the Sabbath was forbidden, the bruising of 
things, which was a species of threshing, was also 
forbidden. Of course, it was a violation of the Sab- 
bath to walk on green grass, for that would bruise 
or thresh it. So, as a man might not hunt on the 
Sabbath, he might not catch a flea, for that was a 



TEACHING OF THE SAVIOUR. 215 

species of hunting. As a man might not carry a 
burden on the Sabbath, he might not carry water to 
a thirsty animal, for that was a species of burden ; 
but he might pour water into a trough, and lead the 
animal to it. It was on this ground that they ob- 
jected to the man's carrying his couch from the pool 
of Bethesda. Yet, should a sheep fall into a pit, 
they would readily lift him out, and bear him to a 
place of safety. They would also loose an ox or 
an ass on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water- 
ing. Yet they objected to our Saviour's loosing a 
woman from her infirmity, though she had been 
bound by it eighteen years, and he could loose her 
by a word. Thus they '' strained at a gnat, and 
swallowed a camel." 

They said a man might minister to the sick for 
the purpose of relieving their distress, but not for 
the purpose of healing their diseases. He might 
put a covering on a diseased eye, or anoint it with 
eye-salve for the purpose of easing the pain, but 
not to cure the eye. Hence the eagerness with 
which they watched the Saviour, to see whether he 
would heal on the Sabbath, that, if he should, they 
might accuse him. And when he did heal, and did 
it on purpose to show the futility of their objections, 
as well as his power to remove diseases, they were 
filled with wrath, and sought to kill him, though he 
showed from the Scriptures, and from their own 



216 THE SABBATH. 

admissions, that lie had done nothing wrong. He 
stripped the Sabbath of the false appendages which 
they had attached to it, vindicated its divine au- 
thority and permanent obligation, pointed out its 
true objects and the proper manner of observing it, 
that his disciples, guided by his teaching and ex- 
ample, might in all ages remember it and keep it 
holy. 

One of the Jewish doctors said, "Let no one 
console the sick or visit the mourning on the Sab- 
^bath." And so scrupulous were they, that some- 
times they would not even defend themselves when 
attacked by their enemies, but would suffer them- 
selves, without resistance, to be cut in pieces rathei 
than violate their traditions. In one case, a thoU' 
sand persons were thus destroyed. 1 Mac. 11 : 34, 
etc. Though they afterwards admitted that men 
might defend themselves if attacked, still they con- 
tended that they might not do any thing to hinder 
their enemies from making preparation to attack 
them. Pompey, the Roman general, knowing this, 
when besieging Jerusalem, would not attack them 
on the Sabbath, but spent the day in constructing 
his works, and preparing to attack them on Monday, 
and in a manner that they could not withstand, and 
so he took the city. 

They would not on the Sabbath even take down 
the bodies of those who were crucified. Hence, 



TEACHING OF THE SAVIOUR. 217 

they besought Pilate that the death of Jesus, and 
of those who were crucified with him, might be 
hastened by the breaking of their legs, so that their 
bodies might be taken down before the Sabbath 
began. 

But, with all this scrupulosity, they could, with 
wicked hands, crucify him, and impiously say, "His 
blood be on us, and on our children." With good 
reason, therefore, did he say, " Ye hypocrites, ye 
generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damna- 
tion of hell ?'' Without repentance of their sins, 
and faith in him as their Redeemer, they could not 
escape. 

" But, if the Sabbath was to be remembered and 
kept holy, according to the requirements of the 
moral law, why did Jesus not say more about the 
keeping of it? Why did he not exhort them to 
rest from their labors ?" Because it was not need- 
ful. As to external rest, they already kept it, and 
with superstitious exactness. Those who would not 
on that day heal the sick, walk on green grass, take 
water to a thirsty animal, carry a couch, or catch a 
flea, did not need to be exhorted to abstain from 
worldly business. They knew that to be a duty, 
and of permanent obligation. What they needed 
wgis, to have the keeping of it stripped of the false 
glosses and superstitious observances with which 
they had encumbered it ; to have the true object of 



'218 THE SABBATH. 

the day, and the spirit with which it should be kept, 
pointed out. This was what he did, by word and 
deed, even at the hazard of his hfe. 

Did they contend that hunger should go unap- 
peased rather than that a man should pluck heads 
of grain, rub out the kernels, and eat them ? He 
suffered his disciples to do this, and from the Bible 
vindicated their course. 

Did they contend that the sick should not be 
healed, even by him who could do it with a word ? 
He repeatedly did it : saying to the woman who 
had been eighteen years ill, *' Thou art loosed from 
thine infirmity ;" to the paralytic, '' Stretch forth 
thine hand;" and to the man at the pool of Be- 
thesda, after thirty-eight years of confinement, 
''Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." They imme- 
diately did so — a most conclusive testimony from 
God that the silly traditions of the Pharisees were 
in opposition to his will. The blind received their 
sight, the lame walked, lepers were cleansed, the 
deaf heard, the dead were raised, and the poor had 
the Gospel preached to them ; thus demonstrating 
that he was the Messiah, that the Pharisees, in op- 
posing him, were of their father the devil, and that 
the lusts of their father they would do. 

At all points he rebuked their superstitions, strip- 
ped off false glosses, and trampled down their tra- 
ditions. But he never broke the fourth command- 



THE TEACHING OF PAUL. 219 

ment, or violated any of the moral laws. He never 
said or did any thing which countenanced the idea 
that there was not to be a weekly Sabbath under 
the Gospel, or that it was not to be kept in as holy 
a manner as under the law. But all that he said 
and did was adapted to show that ^' the Sabbath 
was made for man :'' not for the Jews only, or for 
any particular part of the human race, in one age 
or country, but for the whole human family. Of 
course, in proportion to the light which men have, 
as to the will of God, they are bound to remember 
it and Jceep it holy, not to do any worh, they, or their 
children, or servants, or cattle, or any under their 
control ; hut to hallow the Sahbath and reverence the 
sanctuary, abstaining conscientiously from worldly 
business, travelling, and amusement, and devoting the 
day to the worship of God and the promotion of the 
spiritual good of men. 

But does not Paul say or imply, 2 Cor. 3 : 2, 
etc., that the moral law is done away under the 
Gospel ; and that thus the obligation to keep the 
Sabbath has ceased ? No ; he says and implies no 
such thing. All that he says, here or elsewhere, in- 
stead of making void the moral law, goes to estab- 
lish it; not as a ground of justification, but as a 
rule of duty ; not as a part of the Jewish dispensa- 
tion, for that was abolished at the death of Christ, 



220 THE SABBATH. 

but as a partT)f the moral government of God, which 
is binding under all dispensations. The obligation 
to obey this law, instead of being diminished, is in- 
creased by the Gospel. One of the peculiar glories 
of the Gospel, and that which renders it so far su- 
perior to the Jewish dispensation is, that under the 
Gospel the Holy Spirit much more extensively writes 
this law upon the hearts of men, inclining them to 
obey it, not outwardly or in the letter merely, hut in 
spirit and in truth. 

It is not having the letter of the law on tables of 
stone, or in their hands, that will save men, but it 
is having the law written upon their hearts by the 
Holy Spirit, as is done to a much greater extent 
under the Gospel than it was under the law. It is 
this that constitutes the superior glory of the Gos- 
pel. And it is this superior glory of the Gospel, 
as the dispensation peculiarly of the Spirit, that 
Paul sets forth in the third chapter of the second 
Epistle to the Corinthians. The Jews were prone 
to place a high value upon the former dispensation, 
and to glory in it, while they set themselves in op- 
position to Christ, saying, *'We know that God 
spake to Moses ; but, as for this fellow, we know 
not whence he is." " This man is not of God, be- 
cause he keepeth not the Sabbath-day." '' Give 
God the praise, for we know that this man is a 
sinner." 



THE TEACHING OF PAUL. 221 

There was, at the giving of the law, and the in- 
troduction of the Jewish dispensation, great visible 
glory, and much that was calculated to impress the 
senses. It caused the face of Moses so to shine 
that the people could not steadfastly behold it. But 
there was under the Gospel much greater glory ; not 
material, impressing the outward senses, but spirit- 
ual, affecting the feelings and dispositions of the 
heart. The one was as much superior to the other, 
as its effects would be more durable and glorious. 
Under the one, the moral precepts were written on 
tables of stone, and their observance was inculcated 
by outward forms and ceremonies, numerous and 
burdensome, called, in the New Testament, *' carnal 
ordinances." The other taught them with greater 
clearness and fulness, and proclaimed them with 
greater effect ; writing them on the fleshly tables of 
the heart, in fulfilment of the promise : *' I will put 
my law in their inward parts, and write it in their 
hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my 
people." But this, instead of doing away the law, 
established it, and gave it practical power over the 
hearts and lives of men. As this was done to a 
greater extent under the Gospel, it was, on that ac- 
count, in view of the apostle, a more glorious dis- 
pensation. 

There was another reason why the Gospel dis- 
pensation, of which Paul speaks, is more glorious 



222 THE SABBATH. 

than that in which the Jews trusted, viz., that the 
latter was temporary. Like the shining of the face 
of Moses, it was to pass away. The other would 
be permanent, and go down to the end of the world. 
In the language of the apostle, '' If that which is 
done away was glorious, much more that which re- 
maineth is glorious." This dispensation is lasting, 
and the beauty with which it clothes the soul will 
endure and shine with increasing lustre for ever. 

There was still another reason. The Jewish dis- 
pensation, while it enforced by ceremonies the obli- 
gations of the law, shadowed forth but faintly the 
way of deliverance from its curse, through faith in 
the Redeemer. And this it did to the Jews alone ; 
while the Gospel proclaims clearly to all people, 
Jesus Christ and him crucified, *' tasting death for 
every man ;" and urges all, with new motives, to 
believe on and obey him ; declaring that there is 
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
Jesus ; and that the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus frees them from the law of sin and death. At 
all points was the Gospel superior to the Jewish 
dispensation. Under its ministrations much greater 
numbers were led to believe on Christ as the Lord 
their righteousness, and were justified from all those 
things from which they could not be justified by the 
law of Moses. 

To set forth this great superiority of the Christian 



THE TEACHING OF PAUL. 223 

or New Testament, over the Jewish or Old Testa- 
ment dispensation, was the great object of the apostle 
in this chapter. In prose(!tition of tliis object he 
says, '* Our sufficiency is of God, who has made us 
able ministers of the New Testament,'' or the Gospel 
dispensation; "not of the letter, but of the spirit." 
They did not merely utter the words, but were in- 
strumental in producing great effects. They spoke 
in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power. 
Their words were attended with the Holy Ghost 
sent down from heaven, and were received, not as 
the words of men, but as the words of God ; which, 
by being believed and obeyed, became spirit and life 
to their souls. "For the letter," he says, "killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life." 

The letter merely, even of the Gospel, as well as 
the law, without the Spirit, would be a savor of death 
unto death, by being neglected or abused ; while, 
with the Spirit, it would be embraced, and thus be 
a savor of life unto life. Therefore he says, "If 
the ministration of death, written and engraven in 
stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel 
could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for 
the glory of his countenance ; which glory," of his 
countenance, " was to be done away ; how shall not 
the ministration of the Spirit," that is, the Gospel 
dispensation, " be rather glorious ? If the ministra- 
tion of condemnation," the Old Testament dispensa- 



224 THE SABBATH. 

tion, '* be glory, much more doth the ministration of 
righteousness/' the New Testament dispensation, 
*' exceed in glory/' 

'Tor even that,'' the introduction of the Jewish 
dispensation, ''which was made glorious, had no 
glory in this respect," that is, comparatively, "by 
reason of the glory which excelleth;" that is, the 
superior glory of the Gospel, by which, according 
to his promise, the law of God was written, not 
with his finger on tables of stone, but by his Spirit 
on the hearts of men. " For if that which is done 
away," the Jewish dispensation, "was glorious, much 
more that which remaineth," the Gospel dispensa- 
tion, which writes the law upon the hearts of men, 
"is glorious." Of course, the ministers of this Gos- 
pel, as he contended, ought to be received as the mes- 
sengers of God, and their messages to be regarded 
as those by which he sanctifies and saves the soul. 

Such is the object, and such are the reasonings and 
conclusion of the apostle in this chapter. But not 
a word is said here, or elsewhere, and not a hint is 
given, that the obligation to keep the moral law is 
abolished. The superior glory of the - Gospel is 
represented as consisting in the fact, that under it, the 
Holy Ghost inclined men to obey that law, through 
faith in Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law for 
righteousness to every one that beheveth ; and de- 
livers them from its condemning power. 



THE TEACHING OF PAUL. 225 

The Jewish dispensation was one thing. The 
moral law, which was in being and obligatory before 
that dispensation began, is quite another thing. As 
the law was in being, and obligatory before the in- 
troduction of the Jewish dispensation, so it is in 
being and obligatory after that dispensation is abol- 
ished. It was incorporated for a time with that 
dispensation, and formed a part of it, as it must of 
every divine dispensation. But it was not depend- 
ent on it for its beginning, or its end. Though only 
the moral law was written on stones, yet it formed 
so important a part of the Jewish dispensation 
that the dispensation itself is characterized as the 
one "written and engraven on stones,'' in distinction 
from the one written and engraven on hearts. And 
it was the dispensation so characterized that the 
apostle speaks of as being done away, and not the 
moral law, which for a time formed a part of it. 
This law remains ; and, till heaven and earth pass 
away, will remain, as an expression of the revealed 
will of God, and the permanent obligations of men. 

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth this law, 
or something which is implied in it. By that law is 
the knowledge of sin, and through its influence the 
Holy Ghost, under the Gospel, convinces men, that 
by the deeds of it no man can be justified, because 
all men have broken it ; and thus he leads them, 
while they regard it as a rule of duty, to look away 

Rah. Mannal. 1^ 



226 TBE SABBATH. 

from it as a ground of justification, to the Lamb of 
God, who taketh away the sins of the world. 

While the blood of bulls and of goats, and the 
ashes of an heifer, and divers washings, under the 
Old Testament, typified the necessity of an atone- 
ment and of spiritual cleansing, and answered to 
the purifying of the flesh, the blood of Jesus, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without 
spot unto God, made a real atonement, and answers 
to the purifying of the conscience from dead works to 
serve the living God : not, as of old, in outward rites 
and ceremonies, but in love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. 
Thus the righteousness of the law, under the Gospel, 
is fulfilled in them who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit, and who, with open face beholding 
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are, through 
faith in Christ, changed into his image from glory 
to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. 

Such, according to Paul, is " the glory that ex- 
celleth ;" the glory as of the only-begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and truth ; manifested not in 
types and shadows, but by the sacrifice of himself, 
whom Paul preached, warning every man, and teach- 
ing every man in all wisdom, that he might present 
every man perfect in Christ Jesus. This perfection, 
as to characteVj would coiisist in obedience to the 
moral law, which was the pattern after which the 



EMPLOYING OTHER MEN 227 

character of Jesus was formed ; and in proportion 
to their likeness to him they would he perfect, as their 
Father in heaven is perfect. 

And though the connection of this law with the 
Old Testament dispensation is done away, because 
that dispensation is abolished, it is in full force as a 
rule of duty. Men are under as much obligation as 
ever to have no other gods before Jehovah, not to 
bow down to graven images, or take the name of 
the Lord their God in vain, or dishonor their par- 
ents, or commit murder, adultery, or theft, or bear 
false witness, or covet. And they are under as much 
greater obligation than they were under the Old 
Testament, as they have greater light. 

So they are under as much greater obligation to 
remember the Sabbath-day, and to keep it holy : in 
it not to do any work, they, nor their children, nor 
servants, nor cattle, nor any under their control. 

And here let it not be forgotten, that it is as real 
a violation of the Sabbath to employ others in 
worldly business on that day, as it is to perform 
such business ourselves. The man who is found 
regularly on the Sabbath in the house of God, but 
has men employed in his manufactory, on the rail- 
road, his canal-boat, steamboat, or packet, which 
leaves the wharf on the Sabbath, on the farm, in 
the shop, or in any place engaged in secular busi- 



228 THE SABBATH. 

ness, is himself a Sabbath-breaker, as really as if he 
performed that business with his own hands. Here 
the law maxim applies, '' Qui facit per alium, facit 
jper 56." " What a man does by another, he does 
himself." It is his act in law, and he is responsible. 
This applies to the Sabbath law ; and it condemns 
all who employ other men in worldly business on 
that day, as really as if they performed that business 
themselves. 

But it is said, A man is sometimes *' peculiarly 
situated," and he must labor on the Sabbath. The 
labor in question is not indeed required for the rehef 
of sickness or distress, nor by the appropriate duties 
of the Sabbath, yet it is ''necessary.'' What kind of 
necessity is it — a voluntary, self-imposed necessity ? 
If so, it is a wicked necessity, and compliance with 
it is a wicked act. 

For instance, a man is the owner of certain mills. 
He expresses to his agent the expectation that he 
will continue to run these mills on the Sabbath, as 
on other days. The agent objects. He saj^s he has 
not been accustomed to work on the Sabbath, and 
refuses to do it. The owner acknowledges that it 
is not a good thing to work on the Sabbath, but says 
he is '^peculiarly situated ^ What is the peculiar- 
ity ? He has been accustomed, in violation of the 
laws of God and man, to run his mills seven days in 
a week. He knows how much flour they can in that 



SIX DAYS' LABOR. 229 

way make in a year. He has been to the city ; and, 
for the sake of gain, has engaged to furnish to cer- 
tain merchants, in the course of the year, as much 
flour as his mills have ever made. Of course, to 
fulfil his engagements, and maintain his credit, he 
must keep his mills running on the Sabbath. 
''There is a necessity for it.'' But it is a voluntary, 
self-imposed necessity, for the purpose of making 
money ; showing that the man regards money more 
than God, and thus has another god hefore Jehovah, 
viz., money . He violates the first, as well as the 
fom'th commandment, though he should himself 
every Sabbath be in the house of God. 

He is also foolish, as well as wicked; because the 
same number of men who work but six days in a 
week, will ordinarily, in the course of the year, do 
more work, and do it better, than the men who work 
seven. 

That experiment was tried in a fiLOuring establish- 
ment, and the difference in the amount of flour man- 
ufactured in one year, with the same hands, was 
sixty thousand bushels. But suppose men could 
not do as much by working only six days in a week 
as they could by working seven, and suppose that a 
man cannot fulfil his engagement without working 
on the Sabbath, what must he do ? Must he break 
his engagement, or work on the Sabbath ? Break 



230 THE SABBATH. 

the enofaofement. His ensrasrement to work on the 
Sabbath is a wicked engagement ; and a wicked en- 
gagement is not vahd, and must not be fulfilled. 
No man can bring himself under moral obligation to 
do a wicked thing. ITor can he do it and be inno- 
cent. He must repent of his wickedness in having 
made such an engagement ; and, by reformation, 
bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 

Several companies build a number of manufac- 
tories. They are all dependent upon the same 
canal for water. They construct them in such a 
manner, that, if the water is drawn off from one, it 
must be drawn off from all, and they must all stop. 
Some of the machinery in each mill, or some part 
of the work, when it gives way, cannot be repaired 
unless the water is drawn off; and, of course, can be 
done only when all the mills are stopped. 

But they are not ordinarily stopped, unless at 
night, or for very short periods, except on the Sab- 
bath. What shall be done ? May not a company, 
or its agents, in such a case, have the machinery re- 
paired, or work done, on the Sabbath ? N'o. When 
shall it be done ? Let it be done at night, after the 
mills are stopped, and let them on the Sabbath ''not 
do any work.'' But they do not stop long enough 
at night to accomplish it. So it was said by Sab- 
bath-breakers in a number of mills where they had 



MANUFACTORIES. 231 

repaired the machinery on the Sabbath. But when 
they tried it honestly, and in earnest, they found 
that the nights were long enough. All the machine- 
ry has been kept in repair for years, without work- 
ing an hour on the Sabbath, and it has been kept in 
better order than before. They have actually had 
to stop a less time on account of breakages, than 
when they made repairs on the Sabbath. The 
repairs, in the course of the year, have cost less 
money. The workmen are more moral and trust- 
worthy. Neither the amount of labor, nor the 
profits of the establishment, are diminished. 

" But suppose, in any given establishment, the 
nights are not long enough to make needful repairs, 
what shall be done ? May not the agents take the 
Sabbath ?" ISTo. Let them take one of the six work- 
ing days, Saturday, or Monday, or any other day, 
but not the Sabbath. That is the Lord's day, not 
maris. Let not man rob his Maker for the purpose 
of accumulating wealth, or to obtain any earthly good. 

" But the mill cannot stop on a week-day.'' That 
is not true. It can stop on a week-day as certainly 
as it can stop on the Sabbath. When the Lord cuts 
off- the supply of water, it does stop on week-days. 
Should he send a pestilence, and scatter the work- 
men, it would stop. Of course, the running on 
every working- day is not a matter of necessity, but 
solely of choice. 



232 THE SABBATH. 

*' That would be the case," says the owner, " if 
my mill and water-privilege were independent. Bnt 
should the water be drawn off from my mill, all 
the other mills must stop ; and, as I do not own, 
I have no right to stop them." And, as you do 
not own the Lord's day, you have no right to take 
that. Has your mill been so constructed, that you 
cannot draw off the water without stopping the 
mills of your neighbors ? You have no right to 
keep your property in such a state that you must 
injure your neighbor, or rob God. The necessity 
of doing either, so far as it exists, is a self-imposed 
necessity — a wicked necessity, which God requires 
should be removed ; which can be removed ; and 
which, to obey God, and meet his approbation, must 
he removed, 

Neither individuals nor companies are under any 
necessity of so constructing, and they have no right 
so to construct their works that they must take the 
Sabbath for repairs or injure their neighbors. It 
they have made such a mistake, or done such a 
wrong deed, they are bound forthwith to correct it. 
But is it said, ''That cannot now be done ?" Their 
business, then, is an unlawful business, and they are 
bound to relinquish it. The works are constructed 
on an unlawful spot, or on an unlawful plan, and 
ought to be abandoned; for, to make money by rob- 
bing God or injuring men is wicked. 



MANUFACTORIES. 233 

**' But I do not mean," says the owner, *' that it 
cannot be done : all that I mean is, that it would 
cost too much. The business would no longer be 
profitable." Then it ought, in that place, and on 
that plan, to be relinquished. The individuals or 
companies who expect to be gainers by a continued 
violation of the known command of God, will, in 
the end, find themselves wofully mistaken. 

An agent was about to make repairs on the Sab- 
bath. He was asked why he made them on that 
day. He replied that it was necessary. He was 
then inquired of what he should do, if he knew 
that, should he make the repairs on the Sabbath, he 
would lose ten thousand dollars. He said he should 
make the repairs at some other time. The necessity, 
therefore, was only a monied one : a known, delib- 
erate transgression of the law of God, for the sake 
of making money. 

What is the necessity that manufactories should - 
run from morning to night, six days in a week, 
throughout the year? Why can thev not stop, 
after running five days, or five days and a half, 
whenever it is needful to make repairs ? They can 
stop on Fast- days, on Thanksgiving- days, on Christ- 
mas-days, on the Fourth of July, and a^ ^^xij time 
when the owners choose to have them. Whv can 
they not stop on Saturday, when they must do it 
or break the Sabbath ; or on Monday ; or, if need- 



234 THE SABBATH. 

ful, on both? Is there any necessity that manu- 
facturers should make any more money than they 
can, and obey God ? None at all. With what they 
can gain, without repairing machinery, mending 
bands, cleaning boilers, or doing any work on tho 
Sabbath, they are bound, by their high obligation 
to God, themselves, and their fellow-men, to be 
content. 

Suppose there are twenty manufactories, all de- 
pendent for water on one canal. They are so con- 
structed that, if the water should be drawn off from 
one, all must stop. Should it be announced to them 
by the Almighty, that, if they make repairs on the 
Sabbath, all their works shall be destroyed, and the 
first-born of every owner be found the next morn- 
ing dead, is there an individual who doubts that, 
with their great mechanical skill, and their immense 
wealth, they would devise and execute a plan by 
which they could make all needful repairs during 
the days which they have a right to take for that 
purpose ? 

If they could not do it, one thing is certain — 
should they believe God, and act as wise men, they 
would abandon that business, and go into some 
other more moral and safe, by which they could 
get a living, and not destroy their children. Men 
have no right to carry on any business, by which 
they will destroy even the temporal life of any of 



MANUFACTORIEg. 235 

their children; much less have they any right to 
incur the wrath of the Almighty. 

But such sacrifices need not be made. All the 
manufacturing which the highest good of individuals 
or of the world requires, can be carried on without 
taking any portion of the Sabbath. 

In one of the largest establishments, in which are 
employed more than a thousand persons, '' There 
has not been,'' said the agent, "an hour's work done 
on the Sabbath for more than three years." Pre- 
vious to that, they had made their repairs on that 
day. The mechanics said it was necessary. They 
could not get along, and keep the works in order, 
without doing so. The agent said they would try. 
They did try, they succeeded well, and have found 
it in all respects the better course. '* Wow," said 
the agent, "the workmen who make the repairs like 
it better. They say the sticks of timber somehow 
come together better." They do come together 
better, and they stay better after they are together ; 
because the men who never work on the Sabbath 
can put them together better. Since the adoption 
of this course, the establishment has been more 
profitable to the stockholders than ever before. 

" But in our establishment," says one, " are hun- 
dreds of poor people, dependent upon their daily 
labor for their support. Should we stop during the 
week to make repairs, they would be thrown out of 



236 THE SABBATH. 

employment, and would suffer. Charity, therefore, 
to them, requires that we should make our repairs 
on the Sabbath, that they may have their wages 
during all the week." But they can stop on Thanks- 
giving, on Christmas, on the Fourth of July, and 
they do not have to work on the Sabbath to make 
up lost time. Why can they not as well stop when 
it is needful to make repairs ? They can ; and if 
they obey God, they do stop every Sabbath, and 
instead of being losers, they are gainers by so doing. 
If they can stop one day every week, and yet be 
gainers, why can they not sometimes, if needful in 
order that others may have the rest and privileges 
of the Sabbath, stop two days in a week ? If they 
do not receive wages enough to enable them, with- 
out suffering, to do this, then the owners ought to 
give them more. The profits of the establishment 
ought to be somewhat more equally divided. 

" Yes," says a farmer, '' this working in the man- 
ufactories on the Sabbath is wrong, and ought to be 
stopped. But what shall be done in time of haying ? 
The weather has been bad, and much hay is out. For 
a number of days it has been rainy : the Sabbath 
comes, and is a fair day. What shall be done? 
Shall the farmers rest, as on other Sabbaths, at- 
tend public worship, and let the hay lie ; or shall 
they go into the field, take care of the hay, and 



FARMERS. 237 

secure it ?" Let them rest, attend public worship, 
and perforin the appropriate duties of the Sabbath. 
Let them be contented with what hay they can se- 
cure in six days. *'Six days shalt thou labor," and 
in them, saith Jehovah, '' do all thy work.'' '' Remem- 
ber the Sabbath-day, and keep it holy ; in it do no 
work." God makes no exception for haying-time. 

'' But it may rain on Monday, and the hay be in- 
jured, perhaps spoiled." That is true. It is also 
true, that a man may be sick on Monday, and he 
may die. If he does not work on the Sabbath, he 
may not be able to work at all. On the other hand, 
it may not rain on Monday, and the man may be 
alive and well, and better fitted to work than he 
would be should he labor on the Sabbath. Or, if 
it should rain on Monday and Tuesday, and his hay 
be injured, or even spoiled, that is no good reason 
why he should work on the Sabbath. God did not 
say, Thou shalt not do any work except in haying- 
time, or unless it is likely to rain on Monday ; and 
men have no right to make that addition. He that 
addeth to the word of God, or taketh from it, will 
fall under his curse. 

Men have no right to gain any more property, or 
secure any more, in their ordinary business, than 
they can by keeping the Sabbath-day holy. In that 
way they can get all that they need, or have any 
right to possess. 



238 THE SABBATH. 

But it is said, *' If a house is on fire, you will 
allow a man to put it out. If visited with a sudden 
and unexpected inundation, which threatens to sweep 
away his house, you will allow him, if he can, to 
secure it, though his family might flee from it, and 
thus not lose their lives, if it should be carried 
away.'* 

These are sudden providences, against which no 
foresight or prudent care during the week can guard. 
They do not come under the head of ordinary bust- 
ness ; and what is done, must be done at the time 
when the providence occurs, or not at all, This is 
Jcnown, Yery diflerent is it with the tending or the 
getting in of hay. That is a part of a man's regular 
employment. There is no certainty that, if he does 
not do it on a particular Sabbath, he cannot do it at 
all. Facts show that it ordinarily may be done on 
other days, and as well done ; nay, that, in the long 
run, it may be better done, and often more may be 
secured, by not working, than by working on the 
Sabbath. It is, on the whole, better, for this world 
as well as the future, not to violate this day, 

A number of men, at one time, had mowed a 
large quantity of hay. For a number of days it had 
been rainy. The Sabbath came, and was a remark- 
ably pleasant day. One man stayed at home, open- 
ed his hay, took care of it, and in the afternoon got 
it into his barn. His neighbors did nothing of the 



FARMERS. 239 

kind, but went as usual with their families to the 
house of God. On their return, one of them met 
the man who had been getting in his hay, who ex- 
pressed his regret that his neighbors should be so 
superstitious as to go off, and leave their hay ex- 
posed to be again wet. He said that he had been 
more wise, and had secured his. '^ Now," said he, 
'^ it may rain again on Monday, and you not be able 
to get in yours." That was true. His neighbors 
knew it. But they concluded to leave that with 
God. One thing was certain, that it would not 
rain without good reasons for it. Another thing 
was equally certain, that, if it should rain, and the 
hay be injured, and even spoiled, that would not 
be so great an evil as to do what they knew to 
be wrong. Monday came, and it rained. It rained 
also on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Thursday was 
remarkably pleasant. All who had hay out, went 
busily to work. Friday was fair, and also Saturday. 
All the hay that had been out in the rain was thor- 
oughly dried and housed. The Sabbath came. The 
first part of it was pleasant. In the afternoon a 
cloud arose, looked dark and scowling. It extend- 
ed and moved on towards the barn into which, on 
the previous Sabbath, the man had put his hay, and 
where he thought he had " secured it." The light- 
ning darted here and there, and by and by went 
down into the barn. ''I knew," said a man who 



240 THE SABBATH. 

was near, " that it struck, from the feeling. I start- 
ed up and ran to the window, and the smoke was 
issuing from that barn. They rang the bells, got 
out the fire-engines, and did all in their power, but 
they could not stop the fire. They saw that the 
barn must go. ISTor was that all: his neighbors' 
barns on each side were so near that it seemed im- 
possible to prevent them from being burned. But 
as the flames burst out, and the sparks began to fly, 
the rain poured down in sheets, which, with the en- 
gines, kept those barns so perfectly drenched with 
water that neither of them took fire and the Sab- 
bath-breaker's barn was burnt out between them." 
*' Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." 
That man did not gain any thing by disobeying God, 
nor did his neighbors lose any thing by obeying him. 
There is that gathereth at a time and in a way that 
is not meet, and it tendeth to poverty. Men are 
dependent upon God, and in the keeping of his 
commands there is great reward. Regard to his 
will about the Sabbath, as well as other things, is 
profitable. 

" But it may be harvest-time. Grain may be 
scarce, and a man may need all he has for his fam- 
ily. If it is cut, and is dry, and on the Sabbath it 
looks likely to rain, shall he not get it in, and thus 
preserve it for his family ?" What saith Jehovah ? 



HARVESTING 241 

^^ In earing- time and in harvest thou shalt rest.*^ 
He knew that tlie temptations to break Ms law at 
this season of the year would be strong ; and that, 
if he said nothing in particular about it, men might 
make this exception, and think that the case was so 
peculiar that they might do that part of their work 
on the Sabbath. He therefore set the matter at 
rest, by explicitly saying, '* In earing- time and in 
harvest," as well as at other times, -'' thou shalt 
rest." Besides, if a man works on the Sabbath to 
secure his grain, when it is going to rain, it is by no 
means certain that he will succeed. Jehovah told 
his ancient people that, if they should desecrate the 
Sabbath, he would kindle a fire which should not 
be quenched. He can at any time do this. Some- 
times he does do it ; and not unfrequently in con- 
nection with the breaking of the Sabbath. 

A young man in a thunder-storm, after a vivid 
flash of lightning, came out of his room, and said 
to his friends that he did not like to stay alone when 
it lightened so, and that he never had since his fa- 
ther's barn was burned. That started the question 
as to when the barn was burned. He said they 
were at meeting at on the Sabbath, in harvest- 
time, and the father came to his sons at noon, and 
said they must go home and get in that wheat, 
which was in fine order, for it looked likely to rain ; 
and if it should, and the wheat get wet, it would 

Sab- Mnniia!. AvJ 



249 THE SABBATH. 

almost spoil it. They therefore started off, went 
home, and engaged in getting in the wheat. They 
worked hard, and just as the last load reached the 
barn the shower came. '' There," said the old man, 
*'now we have secured our wheat, without having 
it wet. Let us go in and get something to drink." 
They went in, and were hardly seated before the 
lightning, which had been playing about, struck the 
barn, which, with another barn adjoining, both full, 
was burned to ashes. "I have never liked to stay 
alone," said the young man, " when it lightens so, 
since that." The grain was not so secure as the father 
thought ; not so secure as it might have been had 
it been left in the field. The man had better have 
stayed at church and worshipped God according to 
his commandments, and regarded him more than the 
wheat. He giveth rain from heaven, and fruitful 
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 
He alone maketh us^ our friends, and our property, 
to dwell in safety. The best way is to trust in him, 
follow the path of duty, anxious for nothing ; but 
in every thing, by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving, make known our requests unto God ; 
and thus he will supply all our need according to 
his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Godliness with 
contentment will be found to be great gain. If men 
will not take this course, but will trust to their own 
wisdom, in opposition to that of God, he can thun- 



HARVESTING. 243 

der marvellously with his voice, can shoot forth his 
lightnings and discomfit them, and so consume their 
treasures that nothing but blackness and ashes shall 
mark the place where they stood. Or he can suffer 
them, as he sometimes does, to remain ; their own- 
ers to accumulate rapidly by transgression ;• and then, 
through them, illustrate his truth in another aspect, 
viz., that, "as the partridge sitteth on eggs, and 
hatcheth them not ; so is he that getteth riches, hut 
not hy right : he shall leave them in the midst of 
his days, and in the end thereof shall be a fool.'* 

A man in the state of New York was accustomed 
to work on the Sabbath, and was eager to get other 
men to work for him, because he could get them 
cheaper than on other days. He boasted of his 
freedom from those restraints with which other men 
were hampered. He was such an annoyance to his 
neighbors by his wickedness, that one, who wished to 
keep the Sabbath, said to him, " I should think you 
would be afraid that you would be struck by light- 
ning. *' He defied the lightning, and said it could not 
hurt him. While in his field upon the Sabbath, tread- 
ing down hay upon the stack, the lightning struck 
him, and he was a corpse. A respectable gentleman, 
who gave the writer this account, said, ** I saw the 
funeral procession of that man as they were carrying 
him to the grave.'' His gains, which he obtained 
on the Sabbath, he left in the midst of his days. 



244 THE SABBATH. 

But it is not always so. Sentence against such 
evil works is often not executed so speedily. God 
waits with much long-suffering, not willing that 
even such men should perish, but that they should 
come to repentance ; while he continues to make his 
sun rise on the evil and on the good, and to send 
rain on the just and on the unjust. Yet ungodliness 
even in such cases, on the whole, is not profitable. 
Dishonesty towards God, in robbing him of his day, 
as really as dishonesty towards men, is had policy. 
It produces a bad effect on the man's own mind, on 
his children, and on his neighbors. It is dishonor- 
able to God, and injurious to the world. Where it 
is continued, it never ends well, and often it meets 
with premature death. Yet, if it were not so, and 
men could, on the whole, make more money, and 
obtain other earthly enjoyments to a greater extent, 
by working on the Sabbath than by keeping it holy, 
still, it would be unwise and wicked, because it is a 
Icnown violation of the express command of God. 

"Yes,'' says one, *'it is evidently wrong to work 
in a manufactory, or go out into the field and labor 
on the Sabbath, even in haying-time, or in harvest ; 
and the men who do not do it, on the whole, save as 
much, and get along quite as well, as the men that 
do. Generally, they prosper better." Facts, the 
voice of God in providence, say the same. 

At one time, in a certain part of the country, there 



HARVESTING. 245 

was much grain down. The weather, for a number 
of days, had been stormy. The Sabbath was fair. 
A part of the farmers went into the field, opened 
their grain, and before night put it into the barn. 
The others spent the Sabbath as usual, in the dis- 
charge of its appropriate duties, leaving their grain 
in the field. On Monday the day was fair, and also 
on Tuesday. The grain was thoroughly dried, and 
put into the barn in good order. The others, who, 
through impatience, and want of trust in God, had 
housed their grain on the Sabbath, when it was only 
partially dried, found that it began to heat and to 
mould. They were obliged to take it out again and 
dry it more, and were thus put to great labor and 
trouble, from which their Sabbath-keeping neigh- 
bors were saved ; nor, after all, did they keep their 
grain from injury. 

In another neighborhood, a number of farmers 
got in their grain on the Sabbath, in good order. 
It did not mould, and their barns were not burned. 
No judgment came upon them, and they enjoyed 
the fruit of their labors. They sowed their grain 
for the next year ; it cam6 up, flourished well, and 
promised an abundant harvest. But, just before it 
was reaped, a violent hail-storm passed over that 
part of the town, and destroyed the crops, confining 
itself principally to those farms from which the grain 
was gathered on the Sabbath, the year before. 



24G THE SABBATH. 

*'Biit/* says one, ''it happened so." It did hap- 
pen so. But no such thing happens without rea- 
sons, or without good reasons. " Are not two spar- 
rows sold for a farthing ? and one of them shall not 
fall without your Father." Nor shall a storm of 
hail. *'Fire and hail, snow and vapor," stormy 
winds and tempests, '* fulfil his word." Men are 
dependent on God for the things of this life. It is 
on this ground that he has commanded them to 
pray daily, *' Give us day by day our daily bread." 
He openeth his hand, and they are filled with good. 
What he giveth, they gather. He hideth his face, 
and they are troubled. He taketh away their breath, 
they die, and return to dust. 

Their interest therefore, their safety, their all, 
require that they should obey his commands. In 
doing so, he has promised all needed good. With 
what they can gain and secure by doing his will, 
they are bound to be content. What they cannot 
so obtain and secure, they should choose to be with- 
out ; saying, in this, as well as other things, " Not 
my will, but thine, be done." 

But suppose a man is a merchant or a banker. 
He has so much business that he cannot finish it in 
the week time : may he not post his books, write a 
few letters, and finish up his business on the Sab- 
bath ; especially, if he can do it out of sight, before 



MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 247 

the morning service, during the intermission, or after 
the close of public worship ? No. He cannot do 
it without disobeying God. He who made the eye 
will see and condemn him. A man has no right to 
have any more business than he can do in the six 
working days. Or, if he has more, he has no right 
to attempt to do any more. What he cannot close 
up before the Sabbath begins, he must, if he would 
obey God, postpone till after it is ended. 'Nov is it 
to be forgotten that the Sabbath begins as early, 
and is as long, as any other day of the week. On 
the six working days men are to do all, and on this 
none, of their work, but to employ the whole in 
preparation for the performance of God's work, in 
distinction from man's ; or, in the language of God, 
to keep the day holy. By its constant recurrence 
every week, he gives men opportunity to see and to 
show which they most regard, God, or the world ; 
their own will, or his. Writing letters, posting 
books, looking over accounts, reading secular news- 
papers, and examining prices current, shipping news, 
the state of stocks and markets, even alone in one's 
office, counting-room, or chamber, is as real a breach 
of the Sabbath, and as decisive evidence of supreme 
devotion to this world, as if it were done in the sight 
of men ; and it may be as ruinous. 

" Could it be known what was done in that bank 
on the Sabbath," said a man, after the bank had 



248 THE SABBATH. 

failed and the stockholders lost their money, " you 
might see a reason why the bank has failed.'' Said 
an old man to his neighbor, concerning another bank, 
*' If you have any stock there, I advise you to take 
care of it. The officers go down to the bank on the 
Sabbath." ISTot long after that, sudden as a clap of 
thunder, the news broke upon the stockholders, that 
the bank was ruined, and the property lost ; and it 
has not since been found. 

*' But the times are precarious ; the markets are 
subject to sudden changes ; a man hears, late on 
Saturday night, that there has been, in a distant 
city, a great change ; that his property there is in 
jeopardy. His agent inquires what he shall do. 
May not the man go there if he can ; or, if not, may 
he not write a letter, and send it to his agent on the 
Sabbath?" Not if he would obey God; and if he 
does send, it may not benefit him. A distinguished 
merchant was called on to decide this question with 
regard to himself. At first he was in doubt. His 
practice through life had been to do no such things 
on the Sabbath. He would not take a letter to, or 
receive a letter from the post-office. But this was 
a special case. A great amount of property was at 
stake, and it might be decided before a letter could 
arrive, should he wait till Monday. He had a letter 
prepared, and started with it himself on Sabbath 
morning, for the post-office, so as to be sure it would 



MERCHANTS AND BANKERS. 249 

go, and also to avoid employing others to do that 
on the Sabbath which he had taught them was 
wrong. But on his way this thought occurred to 
him : ^' This is a new thing for me to be going to the 
post-office on the Sabbath. But/' he reasoned, "it 
is a special case ; a large amount is at stake ; if I 
wait till Monday, it will be too late.'' He passed 
on. But the thought occurred again: "This is a 
violation of what you have always considered and 
taught to be right. Would it not be better, more 
consistent, more useful, to hold on in what you have 
.^ s thought to be the right way, and trust the 
property with God ? You cannot secure it without 
his blessing." He stopped and hesitated; turned 
round, and looked this way and that, and began to 
tear tip the letter, which he scattered to the winds. 
He went back, and kept the Sabbath. Soon after, 
he received another communication from his agent, 
saying that there had been another change for the 
better, and that all things were going well. From 
that communication he learned, that had his letter 
gone on the Sabbath, and the agent followed his 
directions, he would have lost a large amount which 
was now saved. 

But had it turned out otherwise, and the property 
been lost, which, by sending his letter on the Sab- 
bath, he might have saved, that would not prove 
that he ought to have sent it, or that he did wrong 



250 THE SABBATH. 

in not sending it. It might have been the will of 
God that he should lose his property, and that he 
should be contented without it. Some men have 
more property than is compatible with preparation 
for heaven, God sees that they will not use it for 
good purposes, and that their keeping it will injure 
them and others. In kindness he takes it away, or 
so orders events, in his providence, that they lose it. 
On the other hand, the fact that this man saved 
his property by not sending his letter does not, of 
itself, prove that what he did was right. But it 
illustrates this truth, that men, with regard to prop- 
erty, are dependent upon God. It is safe, as well 
as right, to trust him, and in obeying his commands, 
to leave all cheerfully to his disposal. He will then 
give men as much property as it is best that they 
should have. With that, every man is bound to be 
content, and every wise man will be. He knows 
that a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of 
the things which he possesseth ; and his first in- 
quiry is, not. How can I make or save most money ? 
but, What is the will of God ? That being: ascer- 
tained, his course is fixed. With regard to the Sab- 
bath, the will of God is, *' In it thou shalt not do 
any work;" "not doing thine own ways, nor finding 
thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine own words.'' 
Men are not to occupy their minds about property, 
stocks, markets, and worldly pursuits ; nor will they 



::4^i:l!^X2^j| 



MERCHANTS AND BANKERS^ 251 

find it profitable, on the whole, even for this world, 
to do sa. 

'* 0," said a merchant, ''you cannot make men 
thus keep the Sabbath. You may get them to stop 
their work, keep their hands and feet still, hut their 
minds will he employed ahout their husiness, I 
know they will, for I have tried it." He had tried 
it, and that was his folly. While abstaining with 
his hands, he had kept his mind on the making and 
saving of money. His great estate has vanished, and 
he is now a poor man. He had better have let his 
mind, as well as his body, rest on the Sabbath. 

''I once,'' said a merchant, "made out an invoice 
of goods on the Sabbath, to send out on Monday 
by the steamer, and with as fair a prospect, I 
thought, of making money as I ever had in my life. 
Upon those goods I lost ten thousand dollars. I 
have been pretty careful since how I take the Sab- 
bath for business." The man who acts wisely, as 
well as the man who acts piously, will be careful 
not to occupy his mind on the Sabbath about world- 
ly concerns. 

"When at church," said a man, "while others are 
thinking about religion, I am thinking about making 
money. That is my business, as much as it is the 
business of the minister to preach. His business is 
to preach; and mine, to make money and support 
him, and aid in benevolent objects." For a time, 



25S THE SABBATH. 

he made money, and became possessor of a great 
estate. But it took wings and flew away, as an 
eagle towards heaven. His character went with it, 
and vast amounts of property which he had in his 
hands belonging to others. It is not safe to trust 
with money a man who takes the Sabbath for world- 
ly business. 

'^ But a man may be in failing circumstances. His 
creditors may not know of it till Saturday night. If 
each one does not take measures to secure himself, 
others may anticipate him, the whole property be 
taken, and he may lose his debt. He may be a 
poor man, and need this amount for his family ; or 
he may be in debt himself, and if this is lost, not 
be able to pay. Unless he secure his debt, he may 
injure his creditors. What shall he do ? May he 
not take measures, on the Sabbath, to secure his 
debt?" That would not be " remembering it,'' in 
the sense of the Bible, nor would it be keeping it 
holy. Nor is it certain that in so doing he would 
promote his own interest. 

A number of men were thus situated. Several 
of them employed the Sabbath in efibrts to get what 
they could out of a failing concern. One, after 
mature consideration on Saturday night, came to the 
conclusion that he would do nothing on the Sabbath, 
but rest contented with what he could obtain on 
Monday. The result was, that he secured the whole 



LAWYERS. 253 

of his debt, and the other creditors only a part of 
theirs. The race is not always to the swift, nor the 
battle to the strong. Truth, duty, and right, are 
better safeguards, under the government of God, 
than human wisdom and power can be, in opposition 
to him. In doing right, men may not obtain the 
greatest possible amount of earthly treasures, but 
they will secure the greatest desirable amount of 
what will promote their highest good. What man, 
not an enemy to himself and his Maker, would know- 
ingly do wrong to obtain more ? 

'^ Here is a lawyer who has engaged to defend 
his client. He is under oath to give him the best 
defence in his power. The case is to be tried on 
Monday. May he not take the Sabbath for prep- 
aration ?" Not unless he is disposed knowingly to 
disobey God ; and facts, in great numbers, would 
seem to add, not unless he would increase the pros- 
pect of failing to accomplish his end. 

A lawyer of distinguished talents, on his death- 
bed, said to his friend, '^ Charge every young lawyer 
not to do any thing in the business of his profession 
on the Sabbath, It will injure him, and lessen the 
2)ros2:)ect of his success. I have tried it. I do not 
know why it is, but there is something about it very 
striking. My Sabbath efforts have almost always 
failed. I found, unexpectedly, that my clients had 



254 THE SABBATH. 

deceived me, and tliat the evidence was very different 
from what I had expected ; some of my witnesses 
would be absent ; my own efforts would fail ; the 
judge would go against me, or the jury could not 
agree. Something would always occur which would 
make the result most unsatisfactory. Tell all the 
young lawyers that, if they would succeed , they must 
not take the Sabbath for business. It is the way to 
faiL^' No sound lawyer of upright mind, who has 
tried both methods for a course of years, has, it is 
believed, come to a different conclusion. But, 
whether it is so or not, no enlightened man, on his 
death-bed, has ever rejoiced that he took so much, 
or regretted that he took so little of the Sabbath for 
secular business. 

There is one consideration which sets this matter 
for ever at rest. The day belongs to God, in an 
especial and peculiar sense, and not to man. It is 
''The Lord's Day,'' to be devoted to his business, 
in distinction from theirs. In his language, they 
are to do "all their work" in the six working days. 
'*Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy 2vork.^ 
This settles the question about doing a part of their 
work on the Sabbath, even when pressed with busi- 
ness. The lawyer's oath binds him to render only 
such services to his client as he can consistently 
with obeying God. And this is all that any man's 
duty binds him or permits him to attempt. 



TRAVELLING. 255 

'*I admit/' says one, " that work is forbidden. 
Men cannot engage, in body or mind, in secular 
business, without disobeying God. But may they 
not TRAVEL on that day, especially under peculiar 
circumstances? My vessel has just arrived in a dis- 
tant port ; I have no agent there ; the markets are 
extremely fluctuating. Unless I am there to take 
charge of the cargo, and take advantage of the 
markets, I may lose all, and be ruined. May I not, 
in that case, travel on the Sabbath, at least a part 
of the day ? May I not start from Boston at four 
o'clock on Saturday afternoon, get into New York 
at six or seven o'clock on Sabbath morning, attend 
church, and at four o'clock on Sabbath afternoon 
start for Philadelphia ; so as to get into Baltimore 
Monday noon? I can spend Saturday evening in 
the steamboat, reading the Bible and preparing for 
the Sabbath ; and I can spend Sabbath evening in 
reflecting upon what I have heard from the pulpit 
during the day. May I not, in that way, while I 
am asleep, innocently be carried forward a few hun- 
dred miles on my journey ?" 

Suppose, while on your way, God should meet 
you, and inquire, ''Whither goest thou?" You 
answer, ''To Baltimore." "For what purpose?" 
" To see to my vessel, that has just arrived, and to 
take advantage of the market." " But who gave 
you liberty to be seeking on the Sabbath to take 



256- THE SABBATH. 

advantage of markets, in order to make or save 
money ? Have you not six days in the week for 
such purposes, and are not these enough ?" What 
would you answer ? That you were at a distance 
from the market, and needed the Sabbath in order 
to arrive the sooner ? But does the glory of God, 
or the welfare of the universe, require it, or even 
permit it ? Is it a good example ? May not every 
other person at a distance travel for the same pur- 
pose, and thus the benefits of the Sabbath be lost ? 
Are the Sabbath and its blessings to be set aside, 
the glory of God and the good of the world to be 
sacrificed, that you may make money ? And sup- 
pose a fellow-traveller, having heard your replies, 
should ask, " When did your vessel arrive ? where 
has she been ? what is her cargo ? what amount did 
she bring ? how much is the cargo worth ? what 
will you take for it ?'' But you wish to keep the 
Sabbath, and you know that such conversation would 
profane it. So you tell him, '' I do not wish to talk 
about such matters on the Sabbath.'' '^ But did I 
not hear you say," he inquires, ''that you were go- 
ing to Baltimore to take advantage of the markets ? 
Is your object a good one, and yet one that it is 
wicked to talk about?" Might not the Lord add, 
"Thou hypocrite! out of thine own mouth will I 
judge thee. Thou acknowledgest that thine object 
is such that it is sinful even to talk about it ; much 



TRAVELLING. 257 

more is it wicked to pursue it." If it is wicked to 
make bargains, it is wicked* to be travelling for tlie 
purpose of making them. Who does not see that 
your own heart would condemn you? You are 
throwing the whole weight of your example in favor 
of travelling on the Sabbath in prosecution of world- 
ly business, when the example of every man ought 
to be, and that of every enlightened and consistent 
man will be, against that practice. 

'^ Yes, I see," says another, *'and I acknowledge, 
that travelling for worldly objects on the Sabbath, 
to make money, or to save money, even if a person 
does stop and attend worship, is wrong. It is a 
bad example, and tends to do evil. Should all pur- 
sue it, the Sabbath would be destroyed ; and the 
example of those who do pursue it is as really wick- 
ed as it would be if all others should imitate it. 
But my travelling is not on worldly business. I 
finished my worldly business at three o'clock on 
Saturday afternoon. May I not take the steamboat 
which starts at four, and get home at six o'clock on 
Sabbath morning, so as to be with my family, and 
attend public worship in my own church?" If you 
may do so^ every other man may do the same. The 
minister of the Gospel may do it, in order to be 
with his family, and preach to his own church ; and 
the minister with whom he exchanges may also do so. 
The clerk in a store may go home, and attend church 



258 THE SABBATH. 

■with Ills parents. At six o'clock on Sabbath after- 
noon he, and the minister who preached on ex- 
change, may take the steamboat and go back again, 
two hundred miles, so as to be, the one in his store, 
and the other with his family, on Monday morning ; 
for it is evidently no more really wicked to travel 
on the last part of the Sabbath than on the first. 
One part is as holy as the other. And the day is 
twenty-four hours long. Who cannot see that this 
would tend to destroy the influence of the Sabbath, 
to set in motion every steamboat and rail- car that 
could get patronage, and to deprive all the men who 
are employed on them of the rest and privileges of 
the day? Those men have an inalienable right to 
the benefits of the Sabbath. And should they con- 
sult their true interests, they would not, for any 
amount of money, give up that right, or cease to 
enjoy the privilege. They cannot do it without 
cursing themselves and their children. The evil will 
go down to their children's children. "No friend of 
God or man can consistently aid in producing such 
evils. But does not every man who travels on 
board the boat or in the cars, on the Sabbath, do 
this ? Does not he encourage the owners to run, 
and thus knowingly become a partaker in their sins ? 
Does he not lend his influence to keep those work- 
men in the practice of habitually profaning the Sab- 
bath, greatly to their injury, and the injury of the 



TRAVELLING. 259 

community ? Is this right ? No, it is not right. 
It is a sin — a great sin against God and man. 

''That might be the case," says one, ''provided 
my stopping would lead to the stopping of the 
boat. But others will travel, if I do not ; and, as 
the boat will run at any rate, I may go." So the 
rum- seller says. The business is bad ; yes, destruc- 
tive. He would stop, if all others would. But, as 
rum will be sold, whether he sells it or not, there- 
fore he may sell. But the question is, and that 
which is to settle the whole matter. Is it right? 
Is the example good ? Would it be useful for others 
to follow it ? Would it promote piety, morality, and 
religion ? If not, it is wiched. Suppose that others 
will commit wickedness if he should not; will that 
justify him in committing it, and thus adding his 
influence to that of others in pouring the flood of 
desolation over the land? His object is, not the 
good of society, but the making of money. And, 
as others will make money by wickedness, therefore 
he will, and thus be as wicked as they. 

And is it not so with the man who will travel on 
the Sabbath, or the first six hours of it, to get home 
to his family? Is not his great object to make 
money, or to save money, by doing his travelling on 
the Lord's day, and that he may have one more 
day to attend to business? Or is it not his own 
pleasure, in being with his family, which he seeks, 



260 THE SABBATH. 

above the glory of God and the good of mankind? 
*' No/' a man says, "it is not so with me. By being 
carried on Saturday night, while I am asleep, from 
ISTew York to Boston, or a considerable portion of 
the way, and going the rest early in the morning in 
the cars, I can keep the Sabbath better than I could 
at a tavern, or with a friend in l^ew York.'' What 
is the meaning of this ? Is it any thing more than, 
''1 think I should enjoy the Sabbath better myself, 
and make it more useful to me .^" '^ Yes," a man 
says, ''my family need my presence. By being with 
them, I can lead them to keep the Sabbath better, 
and in a manner more useful to others." If that is 
the case, and it is on that account your duty to be 
with them, then it is your duty to go to them during 
the week-time, and set them an example of keeping 
the Sabbath at the beginning, as well as in the middle, 
and at the end of the day. One part is as holy as 
another. By going home on Sabbath morning, you 
set the example of Sabbath- breaking, which they 
may follow after you are dead. You teach them that 
only a part of the Sabbath is to be kept holy ; and 
is that the right way to induce them properly to ob- 
serve it ? You are found in company vfith the most 
notorious and shameless Sabbath -breakers, helping 
to deprive those employed of the rest and privileges 
of the Sabbath, that your family may the better en- 
joy them ; and you are setting an example, which. 



VOICE OF CONSCIENCE. 261 

if followed, would destroy the Sabbath itself. If 
you may travel the first six hours, or the first two, 
others, whose convenience, in their view, requires 
it, may travel the next two, or six; and others, the 
next. The whole day may be occupied by different 
parties travelling to and fro, and the day become 
subject to general desecration. To such desecration 
your example inevitably tends. 

On the whole, instead of benefiting your family, 
or leading them, as they grow up, better to keep 
the Sabbath, it will operate powerfully the other 
way. The scream of the rail- car tells to all who 
hear it, that men are trampling on the Sabbath. 
This tends to break down its sacred enclosures, and 
lead others to trample upon its holy hours. And 
when the passengers get out, it is seen that you are 
among them. That scream of the cars gave notice 
of your arrival, and your own conscience condemns 
you. Why else did you wish to arrive in silence, 
before it was light ? Why step so quietly along 
that private back way ? Wliy hope that your neigh- 
bors would not see you, and that you might arrive 
before your children should be up ? Why wish to 
have them meet you first in the stillness and quiet 
of the day, rather than coming in with your bag- 
gage from a distant journey ? You know that it is 
wrong ; hence the effort that you make to satisfy 
yourself and others, that in your peculiar case it is 



262 THE SABBATH. 

allowable. You acknowledge that it would, on the 
whole, be better for the community if no steamboat 
or rail-car should run, and if all the workmen should 
be allowed to have the rest and privileges of the 
Sabbath. 

'' But THE MAIL, the mail must run on the Sab- 
bath. Of course, somebody must go with it ; and, 
if others may go, why may not I ?'* This reason- 
ing, if it were sound, and the statement, if true, 
would not justify any one in travelling, except those 
who must aid in carrying the mail. But the state- 
ment is not true, and the reasoning is not sound. 
It is not necessary for the mail to go on the Sab- 
bath. It goes far enough, and quick enough, during 
the week. What have men to do with monied let- 
ters, stocks, and markets, on the Sabbath ? It is a 
violation of the day to go to the post-office for such 
letters ; and it would be a violation of it to read 
them if a man had them on his table, or to occupy 
his thoughts about them. The Sabbath was made 
and given to men for a different purpose — a sacred 
and religious purpose. Men are forbidden on that 
day to occupy their minds, no less than their bodies, 
about worldly things. After God has been so kind, 
in his providence, as to furnish steamboats, and rail- 
cars, and electric telegraphs, to send information all 
the six days with almost hghtning speed, for men to 



MAILS. 263 

rob him of tlie seventh, for the purpose of convey- 
ing to merchants, from city to city, information 
about trade, is ungrateful : it is wicked, and it ought 
not to be suffered by a free people. It is wholly 
unnecessary. ISTo mail leaves London, the mercan- 
tile metropoHs of the world, on the Sabbath. None 
need to leave any city, town, or village. And when 
men obey God, none ordinarily will. A late post- 
master-general acknowledged, that the running of 
the mails in the United States on the Sabbath, is 
wholly unnecessary ; that nothing but the cupidity 
of merchants creates the seeming necessity; and 
that the government would be glad to have them 
stop. It would save a vast amount of money, which, 
without increasing the revenue, is now paid out for 
Sabbath-breaking mails ; and it would be better for 
the country if all should be stopped. 

But, it is said, there are sometimes cases of sick- 
ness or death, where it is convenient, if not neces- 
sary, to have the mail on an emergency, which, if 
there were no mail on the Sabbath, would call forth 
an express, and it might be proper to send one. In 
such a case they might, on the Sabbath, should it be 
needful, use the telegraph, or send an express. The 
evil of so doing would be nothing, compared with the 
evil of an open, systematic, habitual violation of the 
Sabbath by the transportation of the mails for mer- 
cantile and monied purposes. No law of Congress 



264 THE SABBATH. 

requires sucli transportation. It is only a regula- 
tion of tlie postmaster-general, which becomes a law 
because he has adopted it. He can at any time 
annu.1 it. Within the last ten years more than eighty 
thousand miles of Sabbath-breaking mails in the 
United States have been stopped ; and what were 
stopped at one time saved to the government more 
than sixty thousand dollars a year. They may all 
be stopped, when the people deske it; and all the 
great interests of the comitry be promoted. And 
while they run, nothing but the mail, and proper 
persons to attend it, need to go, or ought to go. Of 
course, the fact that the mail runs, justifies no one 
in pursuing his journey on that day. 

Let all travellers stop, and soon, very soon, 
the mails will stop. In order to this, let no good 
man travel at the beginning, in the middle, or at 
the end of the Sabbath, even to get home to his 
family. If he is absent, and ought to be with them 
on the Sabbath, let him return to them on a week- 
day. If he cannot do that, let him rest where he 
is, and leave them with God. His business is to 
keep the Sabbath-day holy where he is. Is it a 
v>dcked place ? So much greater is the need that 
he should set a good example. Do others trample 
on the Sabbath ? He is bound to hallow it, and he 
may have been called to stay there for that veiy 



FAMILY TRAVELLING. 265 

purpose. None can tell but tliat he may there, in 
the discharge of his duty, be more useful than he 
could be, at that time, at home, or in any other place. 
Of course, all shadow of reason, on the ground of 
usefulness, why he should take the Sabbath for 
travelling, is removed. All good reasons are on the 
other side. As to enjoyment, he must, if he would 
obey God, sometimes deny himself, take up the cross, 
and seek, not his own gratification, or that of his 
family, but the glory of God and the good of man- 
kind. These will be promoted, not in the violation of, 
but in obedience to, his commands. His own good, 
and that of his family, and, in the end, their highest 
enjoyment, will be increased in the same way. 

*'But I am on a journey : I have my family with 
me : we are removing to a distant part of the coun- 
try : I have but little money, and must be econom- 
ical. May I not harness up my team, go to the 
next town, and there attend church; in the inter- 
mission go to the next town, attend church in the 
afternoon while the horses are eating, and, after 
meeting, drive on till evening?'' This would be an 
attempt to serve God and mammon, which our Sav- 
iour has declared to be impossible. If the Lord be 
God, follow him ; but if mammon, then follow him. 
On that plan, should there be no church on the 
road, the family might, except when refreshing their 
t^ams, travel all the time. 



266 THE SABBATH. 

Those who are removing from one part of the 
country to another, and who travel but six days in 
a week, ordinarily arrive at their journey's end as 
soon as those who travel seven, and with their teams 
in better order. 

Two families were removing to a distant part of 
the country, when the Sabbath came. One of them 
stopped, and kept it holy. The other went on for 
the purpose of getting forward on their journey, and 
thus saving time and money. In the course of the 
day one of the children fell out of the wagon, and 
was run over. They were obliged, on account of it, 
to stop three weeks. The other family stopped but 
one day, and that was needed to refresh themselves 
and their horses. The rest of the time they travel- 
led safely, and with success. 

A number of men started together on horseback 
for a distant state. A part stopped every Sabbath ; 
the others were pressed with business, and thought 
that they could not afford the time. The Sabbath- 
keepers arrived at on Saturday, a httle after 

noon. On Sabbath evening, just before the going 
down of the sun, the Sabbath-breakers arrived, with 
their horses so jaded and worn-out, that, in the lan- 
guage of one of the other party, ''they were hardly 
fit to be used.'' 

''But sometimes ladies are travelling alone, or 
those imder whose protection they are will not stop 



LADIES JOURNEYING. 267 

on the Sabbath.'* That was the case with two 
ladies who were travelHng from one of the eastern 
to one of the western states. On Saturday after- 
noon they stopped, and went alone from the boat to 
the pubhc-house, where they spent the Sabbath. 
The gentleman and his daughter with whom they 
were travelling thought they had not time to stop, 
and went on. The boat that night sprung a leak. 
The daughter got wet, took a violent cold, which 
occasioned a fever, and both father and daughter 
were detained for some time at a public-house on 
the road. The two ladies who stopped and kept 
the Sabbath, in the course of a week passed by 
the others, and went on in safety and without in- 
terruption to their journey's end. 

The stage-coach arrived, on a certam occasion, on 
the top of one of the Alleghany mountains on Sat- 
urday night. A lady on board requested the driver 
to take off her trunk, as she did not travel on the 
Sabbath. He said he would if she insisted upon it, 
but she had better go on. The coach was going 
directly on ; the other lady was going ; all the pas- 
sengers were going, and she had better go ; for, if 
she stopped, she might have to stay there a week. 
There had not been a coach along for many days 
that was not crowded ; and no way- passengers could 
get in, unless there was a vacant seat. She, how- 
ever, stopped, and the coach departed. In descend- 



268 THE SABBATH. 

ing tlie mountain, it was overturned. The lady who 
went on was killed, and a number of the passengers 
were badly injured. On Monday another coach 
arrived, with one vacant seat, which the Sabbath- 
keeping lady took, and reached her friends in safety. 
She did not, on the whole, lose any thing by stop- 
ping; but she had reason to bless her Father in 
heaven for the Sabbath, and also for a disposition 
rightly to keep it. 

*' But I have been absent from home a long time ; 
I have not heard from my family ; and they may be 
sick. By riding on the Sabbath I may see them a 
day sooner. Or, I may have arrived on Saturday 
within half a day's journey. May I not finish my 
journey on the Sabbath?'' It is not certain, if you 
attempt it, that you will see your family any sooner ; 
or, if you should, that would not prove it to be 
right. A man similarly situated travelled on the 
Sabbath. The last steamboat which he took, and 
the one which he supposed would convey him safely 
to his family, took fire, and was consumed. Only a 
few solitary passengers remained to tell the mourn- 
ful story. He never again saw his family. Had he 
stopped on the Sabbath, he would have escaped 
this catastrophe. He might, indeed, have met with 
some other. But suppose he had : if that was to 
be the last Sabbath he was ever to spend on earth, 
would it not have been better to spend it in resting, 



SAILING OF PACKETS. 269 

according to the commandment, and in preparation, 
by religious duties, for that rest vfliicb. remaineth for 
the people of God, rather than in giving his sanction 
to the running of steamboats on the Sabbath ? 

'*But THE PACKET IS TO LEAVE THE PORT OU Sab- 
bath morning for a distant voyage. If I do not go 
then, I must wait a long time — perhaps lose my 
voyage. What shall I do ?" Persuade the captain 
to stop, if you can, till Monday ; and, if you cannot, 
stop yourself, till some future opportunity. Let 
every captain know, not by words merely, but by 
deeds, that, if he would have the patronage of good 
men, he must not leave a port on the Sabbath, and 
the evil of such practices will soon be done away. 

One man took the packet for a distant port. He 
started on the Sabbath because he thought he must 
do it in order to arrive in season. Another refused 
to start, and waited for a boat that left on a week- 
day. Yet he arrived in port a number of days be- 
fore the other. 

Another vessel was about to leave a harbor on 
the Sabbath. A gentleman tried to induce the 
captain to stop till Monday. He said he should like 
it, but the owners could not wait. They pressed 
him, and he must go. He started. Soon the wind 
arose, and after tossing in great danger for three 
hours, the vessel was thrown upon a rock. There 



270 THE SABBATH. 

she lay for three days. Then, to repair her dam- 
ages, she was detained in port for three weeks. So 
that it was proved by facts that those owners who 
said they could not wait for one day, though it was 
the Sabbath, could wait, for they did wait three 
weeks. 

The writer of this recollects well taking leave, on 
Sabbath morning, of a captain who was very reluc- 
tant to depart. But he was pressed off by the own- 
ers, because the vessel was read}^, and the wind was 
fair. But neither he or his vessel were ever again 
heard of. 

A number of families were very desirous of taking 
passage on board a new and elegant steamboat that 
was to start on the Sabbath for a voyage of about 
a thousand miles. They urged the captain to stop 
till Monday, and offered him a large sum of money 
in addition to the fare, if he would stop. But he 
refused, and they refused to go in his boat. They 
returned to their lodgings, and kept the Sabbath. 
The captain started on his voyage ; but he had not 
proceeded half the distance, when his boat was 
blown up, and the captain and numerous passengers 
were killed. The fragments of the shattered boat 
were scattered far and wide over the waters. Those 
who had refused to go in her, took another boat in 
the course of the week, and arrived in safety at their 
place of destination. 



SAILING OF PACKETS. 271 

Wfiile writing this document, the following state- 
ment came to hand : 

*'At a meeting of the Lord's-Day Society in 
Newcastle, the Rev. J. Longmuir, of Aberdeen, de- 
livered an address on the evil of ^Sabbath- sailing.' 
The interest manifested induced the chairman of 
the meeting to relate some deeply affecting circum- 
stances personally known to himself. This gentle- 
man, a few years ago, was owner of a fine vessel. 
Her captain had been brought up by him from his 
youth, and when sufficiently qualified, had been sent 
to sea as captain of this vessel, with orders never 
to sail from port on the Lord's day. For a long- 
time these orders were faithfully obeyed. The 
captain, honest and industrious in his business, be- 
came highly respected by his employer. On one 
occasion, he was all ready to go to sea. The seasan 
was fine, and the captain had determined to take 
his wife and child with him on the voyage. They 
were on board. Adverse winds sprung up. The 
vessel was detained for several days. On the 
Lord's-day morning the scene was changed : a fair 
wind and smooth sea tempted him to leave the port. 
Alas, the temptation was too strong for his weak 
faith. He yielded to it. Within little more than 
twelve hours of their crossing the bar at Shields, 
every soul on board that vessel had perished. No 
one was left to explain the circumstances which 



272 THE SABBATH. 

brouglit about this melanclioly event ; but it was 
supposed that the vessel had struck upon a sand- 
bank, and that the captain, having lost the moral 
courage and self-possession arising from a con- 
science at peace with God, quitted his vessel, and 
with all on board took to a small boat, which was 
overturned in the surf, and the whole crew were 
called to appear in the eternal world. The vessel 
shortly after floated with the rising tide, and came 
on shore apparently just as the crew had left it, 
the cabin not at all disordered. A canary hang- 
ing in its cage, full of life and vigor, was singing as 
if all were well and its accustomed shipmates each 
occupied his accustomed place." 

We can never know, when a Sabbath comes, but 
it may be our last on earth. Wisdom, therefore, 
safety, interest, and duty, all req|iire that we should 
spend it in such a manner that, should it be the 
last, we may spend the next in heaven. Had the 
men known, when repairing the steamboat, that it 
was the last Sabbath they would ever spend in port, 
would they have employed it in repairing her ma- 
chinery; especially those to whom, in less than a 
week, she would be a grave ? 

^^This journeying for money, or personal con- 
venience or pleasure, or the pleasure and profit of 
friends," says one, *'as well as engaging in worldly 



SABBATH RECREATIONS. 273 

business, is all evidently wrong. They are a viola- 
tion of divine commands, and tend to eternal ruin. 
But I am peculiarly situated. I am engaged in the 
city all the v^eek, in confined rooms and bad air. 
My HEALTH requires that on the Sabbath I should 
go out into the country, take exercise, breathe the 
fresh air, and recruit my exhausted energies. '* But 
how comes it that your health requires you to take 
the Lord's day for such purposes, rather than one 
of your own days ? Why not take Saturday after- 
noon, or some portion of the six days, for going into 
the country, and give to God his day ? Or, in other 
words. Why not be honest? Why must you rob 
God for your purposes, when you have six parts of 
the week, through his kindness, for your work, and 
he but one set apart as holy ? Is not his time as 
precious as yours, and are not the objects of the 
Sabbath as important as your business ? Or must 
the glory of God and the good of the universe be 
sacrificed to you ? No man has a right so closely 
and continuously to employ himself or others during 
the week- time, that he cannot give to God the Sab- 
bath, or so that his health will not permit him to 
devote it to spiritual and religious duties. He is 
bound to take as much of the week- time for relaxa- 
tion as his health requires. 

But is it not said, " Six days shalt thou labor ?'* 
It is so said; but the meaning is not, you shall 

Sah. Manual. 1^ 



274 THE SABBATH. 

labor so much as to injure your health, or unfit you 
to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. If you 
do that, you violate both commands, one by excess 
and the other by defect. The meaning is, confine 
your secular labors and cares to six days, and give 
to God the Sabbath. Both, properly attended to, 
are not only consistent with, but promotive of 
health ; nor is it necessary or right for the one to 
encroach upon the other. There is time enough for 
both, if it only be rightly divided. It is the duty 
of a man to eat ; nor does his stopping his business 
long enough during the week- time to do this, break 
the command, ''Six days shalt thou labor," but it 
helps him rightly to obey it. He could not other- 
wise obey the command. But if he eats so much 
as to make himself sick, or unfit him to keep the 
Sabbath-day holy, and make it necessary to take 
medicine, or ride out into the countrfj to recruit his 
health, Ue sins against God, against his own soul, 
and against the great interests of the world. He 
unfits himself for his duty. Besides, he obliges the 
dumb beasts to labor, if he uses them, at a time 
when God has expressly commanded that they 
should be permitted to rest. This is a sin. Nor 
does the fact that his health requires it, if this is 
caused by excessive devotion to business, or any 
species of wrong doing, free him from guilt. 

" But I am an apprentice, or a clerk in a store. 



SABBATH RECREATIONS. 275 

I am under the control of others, and my time is not 
at my own command. May not I take the Sabbath 
for recreation, for amusement, for riding or walking 
into the country, and such exercises as my health re- 
quires ? " ' ' To the law and the testimony. ' ' ' ' What 
saith the commandment?'' Is this remembering the 
Sabbath as the Lord's day, and as such keeping it 
holy ? Or is it an exception to this, for which you 
plead, on account of your being an apprentice or a 
clerk ? If the latter, your peculiar situation is not 
a good reason for taking such a course. Your em- 
ployer is bound to give you as much time for such 
purposes as your health renders needful, during the 
week, as really as he is bound to permit you to stop 
long enough to eat or to sleep. If he will not do 
this, and you cannot, consistently with your health, 
keep the Sabbath-day holy, then you are in an un- 
lawful situation, and you are bound to leave it. You 
have no right to put, or to keep yourself •in a con- 
dition where you cannot obey God, in keeping holy 
his Sabbath. You are bound to free yourself from 
it. If you continue voluntarily in it, you involve 
yourself in guilt. And the fact that you cannot 
elsewhere obtain as much money, is no sufficient 
reason why you should not change your situation, 
and go where you can, consistently with your health, 
keep the command of God. Employers have no 
right so to occupy those under their care as to ere- 



^276 THE SABBATH. 

ate any seeming necessity, or throw the temptation 
before them, to desecrate the Sabbath. If they do, 
they are partakers, if not the principals in guilt, 
and are violators of that command which extends 
expressly, not merely to themselves, but to all under 
their care. They are bound to permit those whom 
they employ to have as much time as the recruiting 
of exhausted energies, and also the keeping of the 
Sabbath requires. If they refuse to do this, they 
are guilty ; as are all who tempt others to violate, 
and all who aid and abet others in the violation of 
the Lord's day. 



" But I am employed on board of a ferry-boat. 
The boat runs every day in the week, and I am 
necessarily occupied from morning till evening. I 
cannot, therefore, keep the Sabbath-day holy, or 
even attend public worship.'' Then you are bound 
to quit that employment, and engage in one in which 
you can keep the Sabbath holy. Your present em- 
ployment on the Sabbath-day is a wicked employ- 
ment, carried on, not to honor God and do good, 
but to make money, and in a way which he has 
forbidden. 

'* But people cross the ferry to attend public Avor- 
ship." That is no good reason why any others 
should cross for amusement or pleasure. Nor is it 
any good reason why those should cross who attend 



I 



LIVERY-STABLES. ^i^^ 

public woi^sliip, provided they can attend public 
worship without it. And if they cannot, that is no 
good reason why the boatmen should not attend, 
worship as well as they, and the boats stop, except 
when it is needful to carry over or return the wor- 
shippers. 

*' But ministers cross the ferry to exchange pul- 
pits with their brethren." Yet this is not needful; 
for they can preach in their own pulpits, or, when 
they exchange, can go on Saturday, and return on 
Monday. It is not needful that you should be de- 
prived of the rest and privileges of the Sabbath to 
accommodate them in this thing. It is not a worh 
of necessary mercy, nor is it required hy the best 
discharge of the appropriate duties of the Sabbath. 
They have no right to require you to disobey God, 
in order to accommodate them. And if you do it, 
the fact that they are ministers of the Gospel, and 
that you carried them over to preach, while you 
carried others over to engage in amusements, will 
not save you from guilt, or screen you from punish- 
ment. 

"No," says a man, "this running of the ferry- 
boats all the Sabbath, and going out with steam- 
boats, and pleasure-boats, and rail- cars, is evidently 
wicked, and tends powerfully to promote Sabbath- 
desecration ; but I am the keeper of a livery- stable. 



278 THE SABBATH. 

and if I do not let my horses on the Sabbath, I 
cannot maintain my business." Then it is an im- 
moral and a wicked business. You are bound to 
abandon it, because you are aiding the known, open, 
and habitual violation of the law of God. You are 
also, and for worldly purposes, employing yom 
horses on a day when God commands that they 
shall not be so employed. You are demoralizing 
and debasing your own mind, and the minds of 
your fellow-men. You are exerting an influence 
which tends to destroy the Sabbath as a holy day, 
and to rob the world of its inestimable benefits. Is 
that right ? Will it, in the end, be profitable ? 
Will it yield you consolation in the hour of death, 
and will the reward be such as will cheer and com- 
fort you in eternity ? Remember, that as a man 
soweth, so shall he reap. The breaking down of 
the Sabbath, or the devoting of it to worldly con- 
cerns, tends to undermine the moral government of 
God, and is clothed with the guilt of treason against 
the Most High. 

Nor is it certain, that, without letting your horses 
on the Sabbath, you cannot maintain your business. 
A man w^ho had kept a stable, said, "I had let 
horses on the Sabbath for a number of years. I 
thought that, if I should not do so, I could not 
sustain myself, and yet I knew that it was wrong. 
The thought one day occurred, God has been very 



LIVERY-STABLES. 279 

kind to you ; he has long been doing you good, and 
for you to be so regardless of his commands as to 
continue openly to violate his Sabbath, and exert 
an influence calculated to banish it from the world, 
is ungrateful. It is wicked. Besides, God has 
taken care of your family, while you have been 
openly rebelling against him ; and, should you turn 
about, and obey his commands, is it not likely that 
he will provide for them still ? So I resolved to 
try. I had advertisements struck off and posted 
up, saying that my stable would not be opened on 
the Sabbath. At first, some fell off, but others 
liked it. I began to fill up ; and my business, on 
the whole, was quite as profitable as before. One 
thing was very remarkable. I had been at an ex- 
pense before, upon an average, for a number of years, 
of from three to four hundred dollars a year, on 
account of the lameness and sickness of horses. But 
afterwards, these expenses were not ten dollars a 
year." Men who will break the Sabbath will kill 
horses. They are reckless, as well as vicious ; and 
many a time, the injury done to horses is far greater 
than the profits of letting them on the Sabbath. It 
might not be so in all cases. But, whether it would 
be or not, if men cannot keep a livery- stable with- 
out the open and habitual violation of the Sabbath, 
let them abandon the business, and follow some 
more moral, even if it should be a less lucrative 



280 THE SABBATH. 

employment. It is not '^ the chief end of man^* to 
maJce money, 

'' But other men will let horses on the Sabbath, 
if I do not.'' Other men will steal, if you do 
not; but that is no reason why you should, nor 
will it screen you from guilt and condemnation if 
you do. 

''But professors of religion come to my stable, 
and hire horses on the Sabbath ; and it is no worse 
for me to let horses, than it is for them to hire 
them." That may be. Some professors of religion 
have forged notes, but that is no reason why you 
should do so. It was wicked in them to do it, and 
wicked for any one, in order to get money, know- 
ingly to aid and abet in doing it. It would not 
shield them, when brought before a court of justice, 
to say, that the men whom they aided in this matter 
were professors of religion. No more will it shield 
those who have aided professors of religion in violat- 
ing the Sabbath. Each man must answer for his 
own sins, and cannot shield himself under the sins of 
others, even though they be professors of religion. 
And he who aids professedly good men in commit- 
ting sin, is as really guilty as he who aids notoriously 
bad men; and he may do even greater mischief. 
Sin does not lose its hateful character or mischiev- 
ous tendency by being committed by professors of 
religion. Its evils are often greatly increased. If 



LIVERY-STABLES. 281 

a bad business must be carried on, leave it wholly 
and exclusively to notoriously bad men, that every 
child may see at once that it is an immoral employ- 
ment. Let all good men, all moral men, all decent 
men shun it as they would shun the plague. Let 
no such man ever be seen in any business on the 
Sabbath, except such as is required for purposes of 
necessary mercy and the appropriate duties of that 
day. Let him never be seen frequenting the livery- 
stable, or riding out, or using beasts of burden in 
any secular business. Then will the light which is 
in him not be darkness, tending to bewilder and 
destroy ; but it may shine in such a manner as to 
lead others to glorify his Father in heaven. " Go 
not in the way of evil men ; pass not hj it, turn 
from it, and pass away." Rest on the Sabbath 
from worldly business, cares, and amusements, and 
do what in you lies that the man-servant and the 
maid- servant, and all classes, especially of laboring 
people, may rest also. 

''But may I not go from the city into the coun- 
try, or, the country into the city, or from one town 
to another, to spend the Sabbath with my father's 
family, or the family of a friend, and attend public 
worship with them ?" Certainly you may ; but be 
always careful, in such cases, to go before the Sab- 
bath begins, and not return till after it is ended. 
Not only the using of horses, but^ the using of the 



282 THE SABBATH. 

rail- cars, to go from the city to the country, or from 
town to town on the Sabbath, even if the passengers 
do go to church after they arrive, is a violation of 
that sacred day, which tends to injure those who 
are concerned in it, and to injure the public. Be 
honest towards God, and attempt not, for your 
profit or pleasure, to rob him of any portion of 
his day. 

^' But suppose I am a butcher, and am called to 
supply my customers with fresh meat for breakfast 
on Monday morning. May I not kill my cattle and 
sheep, or dress them on the Sabbath, that my cus- 
tomers may have it early on Monday morning ?'' 
No; not if you would obey God. Better, vastly 
better, would it be for all your customers, if needful, 
to go without fresh meat on Monday morning, or be 
contented with what you can provide for them on 
Saturday, rather than that you should kill cattle and 
sheep, or dress them on the Sabbath. Let all be 
contented with cold bread on Monday morning, 
rather than the baker should desecrate the Sabbath 
to provide them with warm. As for newspapers, 
no man has a right to provide any, or to take any, 
except such as can be furnished without secular 
labor on the Sabbath-day. 

The workmen in printing 'Offices, bakeries y and 
hutclierieSf need the rest and the privileges of the 



FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS, ETC. 283 

Sabbath, as much as other men. They have as 
good a right to them. It is their duty, and it would 
be for their interest, to enjoy them. Employers and 
customers are all bound so to arrange their affairs 
that they may ; and, instead of hindering, to aid 
the workmen in all establishments in the enjoyment 
of the benefits of the Sabbath. And where there 
is a w^ill, there is a way. 'No classes of workmen 
are under the necessity of losing the benefits of the 
Sabbath ; and none will be found to be innocent, or, 
in the end, to be gainers, if they continue to consent 
to do so. 

As to ARRANGEMENTS IN FAMILIES, the NAVIGAT- 
ING OF SHIPS on the ocean, or the conducting of 
any concerns required by necessary acts of mercy, 
and by the duties of the Sabbath, or which are per- 
mitted by the Sabbath law, no labor should be done 
except what is needful. 

Steamboats which' leave a city in the evening, to 
arrive at another city in the morning, should, on 
Saturday, leave in the morning, and arrive in the 
evening. Families, if they have not in the house 
all needful supplies, should provide them on Satur- 
day. For Monday morning, they should be con- 
tented with what they have, and what can be pro- 
vided for them before the beginning, and after the 
close of the Sabbath. They should not even covet. 



284 THE SABBATH. 

or be willing to receive, what cannot be furnished 
but by the desecration of that day, and by depriving 
others habitually of its sacred enjoyments. 

''But there is one kind of employment/' it is said, 
'' in which men must break the Sabbath, namely, the 
taking of whales. The owners give directions to 
the captains to take whales whenever and wherever 
they can find them. If captains of whale-ships 
should not follow the directions of owners, they 
would not be able to obtain employment. Omitting 
to take whales on the Sabbath would make the voy- 
age one-seventh part longer. The crews are absent 
a long time from their families, and ought to return 
as soon as they can. They often go for a long time 
without seeing whales ; and, when they do see them, 
should they not take them, the crews would become 
uneasy and mutinous. If they do not take whales 
on the Sabbath, the sailors would be engaged in 
something worse. The Lord would not suffer them 
to see whales on the Sabbath, unless he designed 
that they should take them," etc., etc. 

These reasons, and all others, may be set aside by 
one consideration, namely, "Thus saith the Lord: 
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." 
But, '' Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy ; 
in it thou shalt not do any work." Nor is obedience 
to this command, in the whaling business, imprac- 



WHALING. 285 

ticable. A number of captains and crews have tried 
it. They have taken no whales on the Sabbath, and 
yet ordinarily have obtained as much oil, and pros- 
pered as well, on the whole, as those who have 
desecrated that day. 

Captain Scoresby, of the British navy, who was 
afterwards commander of a whale- ship in the north- 
ern seas, tried it for a course of years, and was es- 
pecially prospered. He states, in his journal, that 
he does not recollect a case in which they saw 
•whales on the Sabbath, and jet did not attempt to 
take them, where they were not remarkably success- 
ful during the subsequent w^eek. And although 
the sailors at first, when they saw a whale on the 
Sabbath, could hardly be restrained from making 
efforts to take it, yet afterwards they not only were 
entirely willing to refrain, but were in high glee 
whenever they saw one on the Sabbath, because, 
from the facts, they expected afterwards to be 
greatly prospered. 

The owners, instead of giving directions to their 
captains to take whales whenever they can find 
them, can say, as men do with regard to other 
worldly employments, "Sundays excepted.'* Cap- 
tains and crews can agree, when they are engaged, 
not to work on the Sabbath ; and all concerned be 
contented, as in other employments, with what they 
can obtain in keeping the commands of God. Nor 



286 THE SABBATH. 

is it by any means certain that tliey will be out any 
longer, or be in any respect less successful. 

Captain John Stetson, an experienced shipmas- 
ter, and late consular agent at the Sandv/ich Islands, 
says, " We are far from believing that any man can 
be a loser by the keeping of the commands of God. 

We well remember the trial of Captain after 

his conversion. He felt the requirements of God to 
be as binding upon him as upon men on shore. He 
called his ship's company together, and informed 
them of his views. They agreed to give up whaling 
on the Sabbath. The next Sabbath, while Captain 

— was preparing for the forenoon service, a man 

on deck called out, * There she blows !' It was a 
large whale, which passed near the ship very slowly. 
They, however, did not lower the boats, but devoted 
the day to the worship of God. The next day every 
eye was strained to catch a glimpse of the whale, 
but in vain. The week passed away, without seeing 
any. The Sabbath came, and a whale was again 
seen. Some of the crew were desirous of going in 
pursuit, but the captain was firm. Another week 
passed away, and no whales. The third Sabbath 
came, and again they saw whales. The crew became 
clamorous, and almost mutinous; but the captain 
assured them they were in the path of duty, and 
went on with his religious services. This was the 
last trial. They soon obtained all the oil they want- 



WHALING. 261 

ed, and returned in mucli less time than many who 
took whales on the Sabbath. A number of other 
instances might be cited, illustrating the fact that 
God can and does bless those who keep his com- 
mandments. 

An instance is stated by the mate of a whale- ship, 
in which the captain had been out but a short time 
before he repeatedly saw whales on the Sabbath, 
seeing none on any other day. He did not attempt 
to take them. Soon he fell in with other ships that 
had been out no longer than he had, and yet had 
hundreds of barrels of oil, much of which was taken 
on the Sabbath. He had none. After a time he 
saw a whale on Monday, and took it. He saw no 
more whales, after that, on the Sabbath, but was 
very successful at other times. He filled his vessel, 
and returned months before those who sailed when 
he did, and took whales on the Sabbath. 

Captain Green, of England, who refrained from 
taking whales on the Sabbath, stated that he had 
never seen a whale on that day, when he did not 
see it again, or some other, on the following day. 

A captain from Massachusetts, who long followed 
the business of whaling, took no whales on the Sab- 
bath. Yet he was considered a very successful 
commander ; and his services were eagerly sought 
for by owners of ships. His death, which lately 
occurred, was not only peaceful, but triumphant and 



288 THE SABBATH. 

glorious. ''Xever," said an old friend of liis, "did 
I see such a triumphant death before." 

As to the reason given, that the Lord would not 
permit sailors to see whales on the Sabbath, unless 
it were his will that they should attempt to take 
them, they might as well say, that the Lord would 
not suffer them to see their neighbor's property, 
unless it were his will that they should steal it. He 
suffers men to be tempted to do wrong, for a far 
different purpose than that they should yield to the 
temptation. *' Let no man say, when he is tempted, 
I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted 
of evil ; neither tempteth he any man." The fact 
is, whenever a man does wrong, '' he is drawn away 
of his own lust, and enticed." And it is lust, which, 
when it hath conceived, '' bringeth forth sin. And 
sin," knowingly and presumptuously continued in, 
will, "when it is finished, bring forth death." When 
Jehovah commanded, " Remember the Sabbath-day 
to keep it holy," he made no exception with regard 
to the business of whaling. If men would obey him, 
and meet his approbation, they must make none, 
but must rest on the Sabbath, and require all in 
their employment, and imder their control, also to 
rest from their labors on that day. 

It is also needful, in order to enjoy the full benefit 
of the Sabbath, that persons should not indulge in 



SABBATH READING, ETC. 289 

SECULAR READING, CONVERSATION, OR CONTEMPLA- 
TION. The mind, as well as the body, must rest 
from worldly employments. It was with reference 
to the soul peculiarly that the Sabbath vyas made 
and given to men ; and to keep it in a proper man- 
ner, the mind must not be occupied with secular 
concerns. The merchant may violate the Sabbath 
as really by the reading of secular newspapers, the 
planning of successful voyages, or the contemplation 
of worldly gains, as his neighbor who is selhng 
wheat or goods. The student may violate it by 
getting his lesson ; the lawyer by studying his case, 
consulting his authorities, or making out his brief. 
The farmer may violate the Sabbath, by walking out 
in his fields, and contemplating his crops ; the phy- 
sician, by visiting his patients ; and the clergyman, 
by riding to a distant town on an exchange, when the 
case does not require it, the providence of God does 
not call for it, and the law of God does not permit it. 
That there are cases when it may be needful, and 
be an act of mercy and of piety, for a physician to 
visit his patient, a man his sick neighbor, or for a 
minister to ride some distance to preach the Gospel, 
we do not deny. It is not of such cases that we 
speak, but of cases where the visiting, or the riding 
on the Sabbath is not called for by the providence 
of God, but may be more usefully done on the pre- 
vious day. 

9ab. m&wxtl. *^ 



290 THE SABBATH. 

With regard to the practice of some ministers, 
who ride from town to town on the Sabbath, to 
EXCHANGE MINISTERIAL LABORS with their brethren, 
the following thoughts are submitted for serious 
consideration. Some, when they exchange, go, or 
return, or both, on the Sabbath; others conscien- 
tiously avoid this. When they exchange out of 
town, they go on Saturday, and return on Monday. 
Many Christians have expressed deep regret at the 
practice of the former, and an ardent desire that all 
would imitate the latter. They think it would be 
more useful, for the following reasons, among oth- 
ers : namely, 

1. It would be more satisfactory to the great 
body of enlightened and conscientious men. This 
is evident from their frequent remarks on the sub- 
ject, the deep regrets which they express at the 
practice of which we speak, and their desire that it 
may be changed. They apprehend that it tends to 
break down the sanctity of the Sabbath in the minds 
of the people, to lead them less sacredly to regard 
it, and furnishes occasion to Sabbath-breakers to 
excuse themselves in going from town to town, to 
hear a favorite preacher, or to be employed in some 
other way ; while it lessons the influence of the min- 
ister in promoting the due observance of the day. 

A respectable minister starts on Sabbath morning 
from the town in which he lives, to ride ten miles 



MINISTERIAL EXCHANGES. 291 

to another town. After proceeding about six miles, 
he sees a man at his door chopping wood. He is 
fired with holy zeal, and instinctively turns up his 
horse, and says, " Friend, have you forgotten that 
it is the Sabbath-day?'' ^*No, sir." ''You must 
be aware that you are doing wrong. It is wicked to 
employ this holy day in chopping wood." ''And 
pray, sir," says the man, "what are you doing, in 
journeying on the Sabbath?" He does not know 
that the man is a minister, and the minister does 
not like to tell him ; for he might say, " If a minis- 
ter may ride ten or a dozen miles, and occupy, in 
this way, two hours of holy time, I may occupy 
half an hour in chopping wood." However, the 
minister musters up courage, and says, " I am going 

to ' to preach the Gospel to those who will 

otherwise be destitute." "And I," says the man, 
" am chopping wood for my family, who will other- 
wise, on this cold day, be destitute." "But why 
did you not chop your wood on Saturday?" "Sure 
enough," says the man; "and why did you not do 
your riding on Saturday?" 

" Had I passed on," said the minister who was 
once found in a situation like the above, " that man 
would not have known that I was a minister ; and, 
thinking he was no worse than I, would have felt 
supported in his Sabbath- breaking." " Yes," said 
the friend to whom he related this case, " and per- 



292 THE SABBATH. 

haps your telling him that you were a minister did 
not altogether prevent that effect." '' So I thought," 
said the other ; '' and I resolved never to be seen 
again riding from town to town on the Sabbath." 
Would it not be well for all ministers to make a 
similar resolution ; and not to exchange with their 
brethren in other towns, except in cases where they 
can go and return without taking for the journey 
any pa^t of the Sabbath ? 

A man spent his Sabbaths in tending a ferry, to 
the neglect of public worship, and for the purpose 
of making money. His friend admonished him that 
it was not right, that it Injured himself and his 
family, and exhorted him to attend public worship. 
He said he could not do it ; he must be there to 
take over the Rev. Mr. when he went to ex- 
change. *'I heard of that," said the Rev. Mr. , 

*' and I resolved, whenever I exchanged in future, 
to go on Saturday. I have since adhered to this 
resolution. And, having tried both ways, I am sat- 
isfied that the last is the best." Let all ministers of 
the Gospel try it, and see if their experience will 
not accord with his. 

"But," says a minister, '^I cannot spend the time 
to go on Saturday." Then is it not improper to 
take the Lord's time ? " But I wish a part of the 
Sabbath to be with my family." Then is it not 
wrong to spend any part of it in journeying to an- 



MINISTERIAL EXCHANGES. 298 

other town? Would it not be better that your 
brother's family, whenever you do exchange, should 
have all the benefit of your good example with them 
through the whole of the Sabbath; and let him 
come to your house on Saturday, and give to your 
family the benefit of his instruction and example 
through the whole of the day ? Your example, it 
is thought, would, in that case, be more safe and 
salutary to your family and to your people. If it 
is useful for you to ride to a distant town to preach, 
your people may think it useful for them to ride as 
far to hear you, provided they like to hear you bet- 
ter than they do the man with whom you exchange ; 
or, if they think his preaching will do them more 
good than yours, they may ride on the Sabbath to 
hear him, when you do not exchange. If the min- 
ister may ride out of his parish on the Sabbath once 
a month, his young people may think that they may 
do so once a fortnight, or once a week ; imagining 
that they may do weekly, without great guilt, what 
he may do monthly. 

2. Another reason why ministers should go, 
when practicable, on Saturday, rather than on the 
Sabbath, is, that they will be more likely to be *^ in 
the Spirit on the Lord's day." In going from one's 
lodging- place, from the closet and the family to 
the pulpit, the minister will be more likely Lo be 
in a spiritual frame of mind, thin after riding xrom 



294 THE SABBATH. 

town to town, amidst the miscellaneous variety of 
objects which may occupy his attention. His hear- 
ers, also, in seeing him arrive from a distance, or 
knowing that he has occupied the morning in riding, 
will be less likely to be favorably impressed and 
spiritually benefited by his preaching, than if they 
knew he had come from his place of morning devo- 
tion and communion with God. Facts, it is believ- 
ed, justify the conclusion, and observation will con- 
firm and extend it, that the ministers who travel 
most on the Sabbath, are the least likely, in their 
exchanges, to do good. 

A minister who was travelling, came, on Saturday 
afternoon, to a very uninviting place, and stopped 
for the Sabbath. He made his way from the steam- 
boat up to a rum-tavern, the only one in the place. 
The villagers were assembled, carousing in the bar- 
room, and it was rumored among them that a 
preacher had stopped there. Many wondered how 
he came to stop. It was replied, because he would 
not travel on the Sabbath. On hearing that, a man 
said, '^ No doubt he is^ a good man ; a man of prin- 
ciple. We had better have a meeting to-morrow, 
and hear him preach. I presume he will preach 
well.'' No such conclusion would have been drawn, 
had he come there in the stage, on the steamboat, 
or in the rail-car, or even on his own horse, on the 
Sabbath. No one would have presumed, from that 



THE VOICE OF CONSCIENCE. 295 

fact, that he was a good man, or that it would be 
very desirable to hear him preach, though it were 
known that he came only from the next town; 
especially if it were known, also, that he might 
have come the day before. The Sabbath commends 
itself to the conscience ; and even wicked men know 
that all, especially professors of religion, and most 
of all, ministers of the Gospel, should keep it holy. 
The more conscientiously and habitually they do 
this, even if it be at some sacrifice, the greater will 
be their influence for good upon their fellow-men. 
This is an important reason why ministers who ex- 
change should not go from town to town on the 
Sabbath. Conscience takes the side of the Sabbath. 
An enlighten^ man not only condemns others when 
they violate it, but also condemns himself. 

A steamboat came up from Cincinnati, and got 
into Wheeling on Saturday night. A man on board 
told his friend he should stop there, and keep the 
Sabbath, though the boat was going on to Pitts- 
burg, and, if not hindered, would arrive there the 
next day. He thought they had both better stop ; 
they could then attend church; and, on Monday, 
should another boat pass, they could take that ; 
and, if not, they could take the stage, go to Cum- 
berland, and there take the rail-car. He had trav- 
elled much, and had found that men who stop on 
the Sabbath seem to get along, on the whole, quite 



296 THE SABBATH. 

as well as those who travel. At any rate, he should 
stop. His friend appeared almost persuaded to stop 
also. He seemed to know that it was right ; but he 
was ''peculiarly sitiiated.'* Every enhghtened man 
who would break the Sabbath, must, to satisfy either 
himself or others, make out that he is *' peculiarly 
situated." Conscience takes the side of the Sahhath, 
He must show that his case is an exception to the 
rule, or condemn himself. Y/hat, in this man's case, ' 
was the inculiarity ? He had his family with him, 
coming over from the west, after long absence, to 
see old friends at the east. That was a reason 
why he should stop and keep holy the Sabbath, 
and thus set a good example to his family, rather 
than a reason why he should travel. * But it would 
cost more. True, it might. Sometimes it does, and 
sometimes it does not. But suppose it should. God 
did not say. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it 
holy, unless it will cost more ; and why should any 
man act as if he had said this ? 

There are two things which no man should ever 
forget. One is, we have no right to obtain any more 
money than toe can hy obeying God, The other is, 
ivhen we have obtained money, we have no right, and 
it is not wise, to keep any more than we can and 
keep holy the Sabbath, All the money which the 
proper keeping of the Sabbath requires, should go 
freely. It is a good investment; and yields often 



A FATHER'S TESTIMONY. 297 

thirty, sixty, and even a hundred fold. ITor can 
any thing valuable be ultimately gained by doing 
what a man knows to be wrong. 

But that man seemed to forget this, and he went 
on. On Sabbath morning, that beautiful morning, 
one of those sweet little children fell overboard and 
was drowned. In the course of the week, after the 
father got over to Pennsylvania, he met the friend 
who stopped at Wheeling and kept the Sabbath. 
Oh, said he, / did wrong at Wheeling. I ought 
to have stopped, as you did, and hept the Sahhath. 
But I went on, and I have lost my child. He might 
have lost his child, if he had stopped. Men that 
do right sometimes lose their children, and it is 
very trying. But it is much more trying, for a 
father to lose a child in doingwhat he knows to 
be wrong, as this father deeply felt, and as every 
father similarly situated would feel. The spirit of 
a mail, when sound, will sustain his infirmity; but a 
wounded spirit who can bear ? There is no safety 
hut in doing right. That fear of the Lord which 
leads a man to do his duty, whatever it may cost 
him, is not only the beginning, but also the perfec- 
tion of wisdom. It is the surest way to the highest 
ultimate good. It is the best policy in this world, 
and will bring the most gracious and glorious reward 
in the world to come. 

Probably no enlightened minister, after riding 



298 THE SABBATH. 

from town to town, to exchange on the Sabbath, 
when he might have gone on Saturday, feels best 
prepared to preach most effectively from the text, 
" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 
Seldom, in such a case, would a minister take that 
text. If he should, and then, in view of the con- 
gregation, after meeting, ride home on the Sabbath, 
he would not be likely to do much good. Many a 
wicked man, if not now and then a good man, would 
say, " 'Physician, heal thyself.' Thou that preach - 
est that other men should not break the Sabbath, 
dost thou break it ?'* 

"But I go to preach;'' and says another man, 
"I go to hear." 

'* But you might and ought to hear at home." 
** And might not you, reverend sir, preach at home ? 
You did not return home, after meeting, to preach." 

" No ; that was to be with my family." " And 
I," says the other, ''after finishing my business, rode 
home, on the Sabbath, to be with mv family." 

The keeper of a livery stable, in speaking about 
letting horses on the Sabbath, said, " It is bad, very 
bad, but it is difficult to avoid it. The Rev. Mr. 

came the other Sabbath morning to get a 

horse and buggy to go seventeen miles to preach, 
and it would not answer to refuse him. And if I 
let him have a horse, I must let the factory-people 
have horses. They say they go to to attend 



MINISTERS' FAMILIES. 299 

meeting. Some do, perhaps, and some do not. I 
cannot discriminate, and it is very bad." 

If the keeper of that hvery- stable were to receive 
nothing for his horses on the Sabbath, he could 
avoid the difficulty. He would say to the Rev. Mr. 

, when he wants a horse to ride seventeen miles 

on Sabbath morning, '' I should be very happy to 
accommodate you, if I could consistently do it. But 
if I let horses to you on the Sabbath, I must to 
other people, especially those who say they are 

going to to attend public worship. I cannot 

discriminate. Besides, my horses have to work all 
the week, and it would be wrong to work them on 
the Sabbath. God forbids it; the good of the 
community forbids it. My men and myself wish to 
keep the Sabbath, and I must be excused from let- 
ting horses. Come any other day, Mr. , and I 

will gladly accommodate you. If you wish for a 
horse to ride any distance to exchange, come on 
Saturday, and I will never refuse you.'' 

A certain minister, who often exchanged with his 
brethren, would not be absent from his family either 
the night before or the night after the Sabbath. 
He ordinarily rode from one town to another in the 
morning, and returned in the evening. Yet his 
family did not do any better than the families of 
those ministers who were not accustomed to ride on 
the Sabbath. And if you observe the families of 



300 THE SABBATH. 

those ministers who have been most accustomed to 
this practice, you will find that they do not appear 
to have benefited their families. They do not keep 
the Sabbath any better, and the influence of those 
ministers, in promoting the due observance of that 
day, seems to have been lessened. 

To be most useful, ministers of the Gospel espe- 
cially, must avoid not only the reality, but also *^the 
appearance'' of evil; be careful that they give no 
occasion for their good to be evil spoken of; much 
more, that they do not, for the sake of good, do evil. 

These principles extend not only to their riding 
from town to town on the Sabbath, but also to their 
conversation and deportment in the families where 
they stay. If they are seen reading secular books, 
periodicals, or papers, literary, scientific, or tasteful 
merely, or are heard conversing upon general, world- 
ly topics, their example, especially to the young, 
will be pernicious. The more estimable and inter- 
esting their character in other respects, the greater 
will be the evil which, by such a course, they may 
occasion. As dead flies cause the ointment of the 
apothecary to send forth an ofi*ensive savor, so doth 
a little folly him that is had in reputation for wis- 
dom and honor. The more conspicuous a man's 
character, and the greater his influence, the greater 
the importance that he should in all respects set an 
example which may be safely followed, and which 



DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 301 

will in the highest degree be useful to those who 
shall imitate it. And to no subject does this more 
strikingly apply than to the keeping of the Sabbath, 
and to no class of people more than to ministers of 
the Gospel. They are set for the defence of the 
truth, and their lives should be a living exhibition 
of it. On few things does the state of their own 
minds, the influence of their character, or the efi'ect 
of their labors more depend, than on the manner in 
which they spend holy time. 

This applies also to other Christians, and to all 
persons. There is, in the providence of God, an 
intimate connection, and one much more influential 
than is generally supposed, between the state of 
mind which is cultivated, the habits of thought and 
feeling which are indulged, and the courses of con- 
versation and conduct which are followed on the 
Sabbath, and the condition of a person and the ob- 
jects which he will accomplish during the week. 
To experience its highest benefits, the day must be 
treated as the day of the Lord, a day to be pe- 
culiarly and openly consecrated to him. The mind, 
as well as the body, must be withdrawn from earth- 
ly pursuits, and must be employed in those concerns 
which have reference to God and to heaven, and 
which tend to prepare men to be partakers of its 
employments and joys. 



302 THE SABBATH. 

Of course, pro.yer, private, social^ and public, must 
form a part, and an important part, of the employ- 
ments of the Sabbath. All those who would expe- 
rience its highest benefits must pray especially for 
the teaching of the Holy Spirit, in dependence on 
Jesus Christ, and for the purpose of learning and 
doing his will. 

The study of the Scriptures is also an employ- 
ment eminently suited to the objects of the Sabbath. 
The day of God is peculiarly the time to study the 
word of God, and become more acquainted with his 
character and will, with his commands, his promises, 
his threatenings, and their fulfilment ; and with the 
evidence which he has furnished that, when the 
word has gone out of his mouth, it standeth for 
ever. This is the time, and this is the way, through 
grace, to inspire and strengthen confidence in God, 
to awaken and increase love to him, and in feelings 
and wishes and efforts to become like him, and thus 
be fitted for every good work. 

Without prayer and the study of the Scriptures, 
no person will be likely rightly to keep the Sabbath, 
or to experience its highest benefits. The Bible 
must be read with attention on other days ; but on 
this it should be studied. In producing divine ef- 
fects upon the soul, the Lord will magnify his word 
above all his name. ** The entrance of thy word 
giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." 



DUTIES OF THE SABBATH. 303 

" I have more understanding than all my teachers, 
for thy testimonies are my meditation,''^ That em- 
ployment of mind which the Psalmist here desig- 
nates as meditation on the testimonies of God, is, 
of all exercises upon the Sabbath, among the most 
useful. It is the means of life to the soul. By it 
God quickens, illuminates, and purifies. '* Through 
thy precepts I get understanding ; therefore I hate 
every false way.'' *'I understand more than the 
ancients, because I keep thy precepts." Never, till 
a person tries it, will he know the full benefits of 
treating the Sabbath as the day of God, of study- 
ing the Bible as the word of God, in order to un- 
derstand the mind, apprehend the heart, and be 
changed into the image of God. Sweet, then, will 
his words be to the taste ; sweeter than honey, even 
the honey- comb. The Sabbath will be the most 
delightful of all days. Its influence for good on the 
body and the soul will be most happy during the 
whole week, and in all the relations and duties of 
life. Evidence will shine out like the sun, that, 
while the day belongs to God, it was made by hhn 
for man ; and that in the keeping of it holy there 
is great reward. 

Other hooks, especially those which aid us in 
rightly understanding the Bible and imbibing its 
spirit, may to advantage occupy a portion of atten- 
tion on that day. Conversation, also, on subjects 



304 THE SABBATH. 

and in a manner adapted to promote the same ends, 
will be found to be useful. Children and others 
should he instructed in the principles and precepts 
of religion, and in the duties which they owe to 
God, to themselves, and their fellow-men, and such 
methods be taken as are best suited to interest them 
and promote their highest good. 

To experience the full benefits of the Sabbath, 
persons who have opportunity must also habitually 
attend public worship. This is an ordinance of 
God, sanctioned by the example of Christ, and the 
duty of observing it was taught in the preaching, 
and exemplified in the practice of the apostles. It 
is a duty, the performance of which is essential to 
the honor of God, and the highest good of men ; 
reasonable in its nature, and most beneficial in its 
efi'ects, No one who voluntarily and habitually 
neglects it, ever properly keeps the Sabbath, or 
experiences its highest and best effects. 

But, a man says, I have the Bible and good 
books ; I can read at home ; I can meditate on di- 
vine things, and be more benefited than by hearing 
preaching. That might be, if preaching were not 
the appointment of God, and attended with his 
blessing. But, as it is, no one can most honor him 
and benefit himself by neglecting it. *' Go ye into 
all the world,'' he says to his ministers, " and ^r^ocA 



PUBLIC WORSHIP. ^)5 

the Gospel to every creature." If it is their duty to 
obey him and to preach to all, it is the duty of all 
who have opportunity to hear. That faith which is 
the gift of God, which purifies the heart, which 
works by love, and overcomes the world, through 
the grace and according to the appointment of God, 
comes hy hearing the word of God read, explained, 
illustrated, and applied by his ministers, whom he 
hath sent forth for the purpose of warning every 
man, and teaching every man, that they may thus 
present them perfect in Christ Jesus. 

Were it true in any particular case, that an indi- 
vidual might benefit himself as much by taking his 
own way as by following the divine appointment, 
still he could not as much honor God, or benefit his 
fellow-men. His example would be bad ; one which 
tends to destroy public worship, and deprive the 
world of its benefits. If one may stay at home, 
another may, and another, all may; seeking each 
one his own in his own way, not the things of God 
in the ways of his appointment. But the truth is, 
their own highest good can never, in reality, be per- 
manently promoted, except by the promotion of the 
glory of God and the good of their fellow-men. It 
was with special reference to the public worship of 
God that the Sabbath was appointed; and attend- 
ance upon it, and engagedness in its duties, are es- 
sential in order rightly and most usefully to keep it 

Sftb. MannaL 20 



306 THE SABBATH. 

holy, because it is by tbe preaching of the Gospel 
peculiarly that God saves those who believe. ITot 
that the hearers are to ground their faith upon the 
declarations of the minister. But, while they are 
to hear him, and unite with the congregation in 
public worship, they are to prove all things, and 
hold fast that which is good. For this purpose 
they are to search the Scriptures as the only infal- 
lible standard, and by them are to judge of the 
preaching which they hear, and receive or reject it, 
as it agrees with, or is opposed to, the word of God. 
This is a reason why they are, on the Sabbath, to 
study the Scriptures, and become acquainted with 
their contents, that by them they may be able to 
judge correctly of what they hear, to prove rightly 
all things, and hold fast only that which is good. 

For, should an apostle, or an angel from heaven, 
preach any doctrine opposed to those contained in 
the word of God, every man who should know this 
would be bound to reject it. To the law and to the 
testimony: if men speak not according to these, 
there is no light in them. And if the blind lead the 
blind, both will be in danger of perishing. But let 
all be taught to read, own a Bible, and every day 
read a portion of it as the word of God, seeking 
for the teaching of his Holy Spirit, in dependence 
on the Saviour, and for the purpose of knowing and 
doing his will ; let them spend a portion of every 



KNOWLEDGE OP THE BIBLE. 307 

Sabbath in studying it, and in hearing the Gospel 
preached by his ministers, calhng no man master, 
because one is their master, even Christ, and receiv- 
ing his truth, not as the word of man, but as the 
word of God, and they will become wise unto sal- 
vation. They will know the truth, and the truth, 
so far as they are governed by it, will make them 
free from complacency in, and dependence upon 
themselves, from subjection to human authority, 
from the fear of man, from the love of the world, 
and the power of sin. 

The acquisition and communication of biblical 
knowledge is an appropriate employment for the 
proper and most useful observance of the Christian 
Sabbath, This may be done in the family, in the 
Sabbath-school, in the Bible-class, and in all those 
places and forms which will be most interesting and 
efficacious ; due regard being had to the ages and 
characters, conditions, capacities, and wants of all 
concerned. With the young and inexperienced a 
different course, in many respects, may to advantage 
be adopted, from what would be most suitable to 
those of more advanced knowledge and years. A 
lively interest in the exercises of the day is exceed- 
ingly desirable, especially in the young, and, if prac- 
ticable, should be secured. The mind should not 
be overtaxed as to amount or time, on this day of 
holy rest; nor should it, on the other hand, be given 



308 THE SABBATH. 

up to idleness and sloth, much less to lightness and 
frivolity. Nothing should be done which tends to 
obliterate the impression that it is the day of the 
Lord, an emblem of the rest of heaven, and, by 
God's appointment, a season of special efforts to b6 
prepared to be partakers of its joys. The end for 
which the day was made and given to men should he 
Tcept in view, and such a course he pursued hy all 
classes of people as is hest adapted to accomplish it. 

With reference to this, it is not wise to have a 
great pressure of worldly business and cares on 
Saturday, or to carry them up to the last moment 
of secular time. Such a course tends fo unfit the 
mind and the body for the duties of the Sabbath. 
Not a few, in this way, to a great extent, deprive 
themselves of its benefits. Let men work, or jour- 
ney, or write, or sit in legislative or judicial halls, 
till twelve o'clock on Saturday night, and they will 
be very likely to have, in spiritual things, a com- 
paratively profitless Sabbath. On the contrary, let 
them remember in season that the day is coming, 
and regularly close their business, and they will 
find it highly conducive to the best observance and 
greatest usefulness of the day. 

Ministers of the Gospel who close their prepara- 
tion for the pulpit at twelve o'clock on Saturday 
noon, will be much more likely rightly to keep the 
Sabbath than those who continue their labors till 



ONE DAY OF REST. 309 

twelve o'clock on Saturday niglit. And they wlio 
close their preparation for the pulpit on Friday even- 
ing, and have Saturday for a day of rest, will be 
able to perform more ministerial labor, and in a 
better manner, than those who have no day of rest. 
A distinguished divine, who has lately, as is be- 
lieved, gone to the rest which remains for the peo- 
ple of God, but a short time before his departure 
told the writer that he had tried effectually both 
ways. He had, for a number of years, finished his 
preparation on Saturday night. He had then preach- 
ed and performed the other duties of the Sabbath, 
and been diligently employed during the following 
six days of the week. He had afterwards, as ex- 
hausted nature began to cry out for help, changed 
his course. For a number of years he had made it 
a matter of conscience to finish his preparation for 
the pulpit on Friday evening, and to have Saturday 
as a day of rest. He then came to the duties of 
the Sabbath invigorated and refreshed. Instead of 
being, as before, in feverish excitement, under the 
exhaustion of previous labors, he could preach with 
greater vigor and efi'ect. He escaped the subsequent 
annihilating depression of which his brethren, who 
have no day of rest, complain, and of which he for- 
merly complained. He enjoyed more uniform and 
vigorous health, and, in the course of the year, could 
accomplish more business, and in a better manner. 



310 THE SABBATH. 

Such, it is believed, in the pursuance of a similar 
course, with proper training and habits, would be 
the experience of others. Preachers can no more 
work with diligence seven days in a week without 
injury than other men. Annihilation on Monday, 
ennui on Tuesday, dyspepsia on Wednesday, bron- 
chitis on Thursday, feverish, apprehensive excite- 
ment about the Sabbath on Friday, and unhealthy, 
nervous irritation and effort on Saturday, to be fol- 
lowed by unnatural, and well-nigh supernatural ex- 
hibitions on the Sabbath, and ills like the above on 
the following week, resulting, not unfrequently, in 
abandonment of the ministry, or loss of health, or 
premature death, echo the voice of God, '' Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." 

As the appropriate duties of the Sabbath call 
ministers of the Gospel to exhausting labors on that 
day, they must have another day for rest. Satur- 
day, if practicable, is the best day, for various rea- 
sons. If they cannot have that, let them take Mon- 
day. But it is said, there are sick to be visited, and 
various imperious duties, which must occupy Mon- 
day. Then let them take Tuesday. One day in a 
week they must have, if, with proper diligence, they 
obey the command, '* Six days shalt thou labor,'' or 
they must eat the fruit of their own labor, and be 
filled with their devices. 

But a man asks, Would you have ministers of the 



ONE DAY OF REST. 811 

Gospel do less work ? l^o, I would have them do 
more ; and more than they can do by working seven 
days in a week ; and I would have them do it in a 
better way. I would also have them set a better 
example to their people. Instead of opposing their 
wisdom to the wisdom of God, I would have them, 
in the duties of their calling, six days in a week, 
give themselves to reading, to meditation and to 
prayer, to the ministry of the word and the admin- 
istration of the ordinances of God's appointment, 
stirring up the gift of God that is in them, and 
what their hands find to do, doing it with their 
might ; and one day in a week I would have them, 
in accordance with the nature which God has given 
them, and the obligations thence arising, cease from 
their labors, as God did from his, and, like him, 
be thereby refreshed. 

*' But the custom is such that this cannot be 
done." Then let the custom be changed, and the 
sooner the better ; and you may be instrumental, 
under God, in changing it. Be not conformed, in 
this respect, to the world ; but be ye transformed 
by the renewing of your mind and the changing of 
your conduct, that ye may thus prove what is that 
good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. 

*' But I," says one, " am a private Christian. I 
have to work all the week in a laborious employ- 
ment, in order to support my family. On Saturday 



312 THE SABBATH. 

night I feel exhausted and in need of repose. On 
Sabbath morning I have to rise early, attend to per- 
sonal and family duties, then go to Sabbath-school, 
which is held before meeting, and at the intermission. 
We have three public services, or two and a prayer- 
meeting in the evening. The Sabbath is to me as 
exhausting, physically, as any day of the week." 
But this, in a free country, is a matter, not of co- 
ercion, but of choice. It is not required by the na- 
ture of man, or by the command of God. No man 
who labors all the week is called to exhaust himself 
physically on the Sabbath, but so to employ it in 
such holy rest and duties as to be refreshed. This 
the command of God requires, and a sound Chris- 
tian discretion dictates. By excess in amount of 
labor on a week-day, a man may so exhaust himself 
that he will be obliged to lie by the next day. But 
his constitution does not require, this, neither does 
the law of God or the good of men. They do not 
permit it. A wise man will not do it. If an unwise 
man does it, he must reap the fruit of his folly. If 
he errs in excess of bodily or mental effort on the 
Sabbath, he will suffer as really as on a week-day. 
The laws of nature, which are the laws of God, are 
too good to permit a man to violate them with im- 
punity even in religious efforts. He must, to obey 
God, and if he feel and act rightly he will, strive 
to enter in at the strait gate, and to walk in the 



ONE DAY OF REST. 313 

narrow way, and also have others do the same; 
yet he will suffer even in this, unless he strive law- 
fully, according to the laws of God. He must take 
the Lord's way, in preference to his own, or the way 
of others, even though they should be great and 
good men; sajang to God in this as well as in 
other things, '* Not my will, but thine be done." 

Hence, the necessity of going to the Bible in order 
to learn the will of God about the Sabbath ; to 
learn the end for which the day was made, and the 
way in which it is to be kept. We must also know 
ourselves, and the laws, natural and moral, by which 
we are to be governed, that we may not, through 
ignorance, or for the purpose of doing good, vio- 
late them. 

We see also the necessity of observation and ex- 
perience, and especially of prayer for the teaching 
of the Holy Spirit, that by the word, the Spirit, 
and the providence of God, we may be furnished 
with all needful light to discern, and all needful 
wisdom and grace to pursue the manifested will of 
God. 

The duties of the Sabbath, rightly understood and 
properly performed, instead of tending to unfit, all 
tend better to prepare a man for the discharge of 
the subsequent duties of the week, and, like godli- 
ness in all other respects, they are profitable unto 
all good things. 



314 THE SABBATH. 

''But why IS it necessary, in order rightly to keep 
the Sabbath, that men should habitually attend 
public worship ?*' 

Because, without it, the great object of the Sab- 
bath can never be accomplished. That object is, to 
communicate to men the true knowledge of God, 
and statedly to present to them the motives which 
he has revealed to induce them to love and obey 
him. 

That there is a God all nature shows ; of course, 
it is the duty of all men to acknowledge and adore 
him, not only as individuals and in private, but as 
social beings and in a public manner. This God 
requires: "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and rever- 
ence my sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, ye 
kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and 
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto 
his name : bring an offering, and come into his 
courts. worship the Lord in the beauty of holi- 
ness.*' " Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting 
one another, and so much the more as ye see the 
day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that 
we have received the knowledge of the truth, there 
remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain 
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion, which shall devour the adversaries." 

Without public worship the Sabbath itself will be 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ESSENTIAL. 315 

neglected, and the true knowledge of God will be 
lost. The Gospel will not be preached, or, if preach- 
ed, will fail of its effects. If one may stay away, 
another may, and another ; all may. The day will 
be devoted to secular business or to amusement 
and dissipation. The ordinances of the Gospel and 
the means of grace will be neglected. The Bible 
will not be read, and those instrumentalities which 
God has appointed to make men wise unto salvation 
will cease to operate. 

Common schools and general education never pre- 
vail without public worship, nor that intelligence 
and virtue which are essential to the purity and 
even the existence of free, civil, and religious insti- 
tutions. So that those who neglect public worship 
not only rebel against their Maker, but exert an in- 
fluence which tends to banish all true and saving 
knowledge of him from the world. They would 
blot out the manifestation of his glory, especially 
that which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. They 
would stop the sound of his mercy, and prevent the 
reconciling of men unto himself. They therefore 
do a great injury, not only to themselves but also 
to their fellow-men. 

Though some individuals of peculiar structure and 
temperament, or in a peculiar condition, may for a 
time neglect public worship, and not become openly 
vicious, yet with the masses of men it would be far 



316 THE SABBATH. 

otherwise. Let the public worship of God be aban- 
doned, and family prayer and private devotion would 
cease. Impressions made by truth, and reskaints 
which it imposes, would be done away. Passions 
would become rampant, and vice stalk abroad. All 
that is holy in possession, and all that is lovely and 
cheering in prospect, would be for ever lost. 

Nor would the contemner of public worship him- 
self escape. He would lose the favor of God, the 
approbation of an enlightened, approving conscience, 
the pleasure of doing good while he lives, and of 
setting an example which will be carrying blessings 
to others after he is in the grave. 

On the contrary, his own mind would suffer, and 
be like the heath in the desert, not seeing good 
when good comes. His children would fail of the 
benefit which they might receive, and the prospect 
be increased that, as the parents refuse to do their 
duty, their children would grope in darkness through 
time, and the blackness of darkness would rest up- 
on them for eternity. Generations that succeed 
them would experience the deleterious influences of 
their having lived, and would add in long succession 
and accumulating pressure to the weight of their 
torments. 

Who, then, that is a friend to himself or his race, 
will neglect the obvious and reasonable duty of 
publicly and habitually worshipping his Maker? 



CONCLUSION. 317 

And wlio tliat is a friend to God will not delight in 
uniting with his fellow-men in acknowledging and 
adoring Him who is over all, blessed for evermore, 
and mingling his voice with those who from Sabbath 
to Sabbath say, " come, let ns worship ; let us 
kneel and bow down before Jehovah our Maker ; for 
we are the sheep of his pasture, and the people of 
his hand. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and 
his courts with praise : be thankful unto him, and 
bless his name. Bless the Lord in all places of his 
dominion: bless the Lord, my soul." And who 
that loves his children will not pour upon them and 
his children's children to all coming ages the tide of 
blessings which will flow from his example ? 

Let all, then, who would be the friends of their 
Maker and benefactors of their race, confine their 
secular business, travelling, and amusement to six 
days in a week, the only days which God has made 
or given to men for that purpose, the only days 
which they can take without taking what is not 
theirs, and thus showing themselves to be at heart, 
towards God, dishonest men. Let them remember 
the Sabbath-day, and keep it holy as the day of the 
Lord ; devoting it from beginning to end cheerfully 
to his worship, private, social, and public, and to 
the promotion of the spiritual good of men. Let 
them cease from secular cares, from worldly, scien- 



318 THE SABBATH. 

tific, and literary reading, conversation, visiting, and 
pleasure. Let them hearken diligently to the voice 
of God in his works, his word, and his providence, 
and as echoed by their own conscience ; let them 
make it a part of their employment every Sabbath, 
to study the Bible with attention, docility, and pray- 
er ; to hearken to it as illustrated, expounded, and 
enforced by the pious, learned, and faithful ministers 
of the Gospel ; and then let them search the Scrip- 
tures for themselves, and judge whether what they 
hear is confirmed by the unerring word of God; and 
if so, let them receive it, not as the word of men, 
but as the word of God, treasure it up in their 
hearts, and exemplify it in their lives. Then will, 
they shine as lights in the world, holding forth the I 
word of life, and letting their light so shine thatJ 
multitudes will be led to glorify their Father in ( 
heaven. Life will be pleasant, death will be peace- 
ful, and eternity glorious. Their children who walk 
in their steps will rise up and call them blessed. 
Posterity will honor their memory, and unborn gen- . 
erations to all future time reap the benefit of their 
labors, and add to their exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory. 



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